Biological function and molecular mechanism of piRNA in cancer

Abstract

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. piRNAs, which are a novel type of identified small noncoding RNA (ncRNA), play a crucial role in cancer genomics. In recent years, a relatively large number of studies have demonstrated that several piRNA are aberrantly expressed in various kinds of cancers including gastric cancer, bladder cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer and Lung cancer and may probably serve as a novel therapeutic target and biomarker for cancer treatment. The present review summarized current advances in our knowledge of the roles of piRNAs in cancer.

PNPLA2 influences secretion of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins by human hepatoma cells

“…Gene inhibition allows the functional study of a particular gene/protein using in vitro or in vivo models. This can be achieved thanks to RNA interference (RNAi), a mechanism which induces gene silencing by targeting complementary mRNA for degradation with doublestranded RNA (dsRNA) as reviewed in 79 . The experimental protocol involves transfection with either synthetic small interfering RNA (siRNA) probes or with plasmids coding for short-hairpin shRNA molecules that resemble intermediates of the microRNA pathway and become activated intracellularly 80 .…”

Reprogramming of CaCo2 colorectal cancer cells after using the complex of poly-(N-vinylpyrrolidone) with small non-coding RNAs

“…MiRNA inhibitor molecules and siRNA-based therapeutics are currently being developed as potential therapeutic avenues [[64], [65], [66], [67], [68], [69]]. However, piRNAs have not been explored as a therapeutic target [70].…”

The full recovery of mice (Mus Musculus C57BL/6 strain) from virus–induced sarcoma after treatment with a complex of DDMC delivery system and sncRNAs

“…Increased activity of TEs is associated with inhibition of piRNAs expression, which can due to mutagenic transpositions and genomic instability result in carcinogenesis [112]. Aberrant expression of piRNAs is obtained in different cancer types, which possible indicate tissue-specific dependence of separate cluster piRNAs expression [[113], [114], [115], [116], [117], [118], [119]].…”