Editorial: Combating cancer with natural products: Non-coding RNA and RNA modification

Abstract

Editorial on the Research TopicCombating cancer with natural products: Non-coding RNA and RNA modification Cancer is a type of tumor with the ability of malignant proliferation, whereby cancer cells survive and multiply gradually out of the body's control. The hallmarks of cancer have been clearly and comprehensively summarized by the Hanahan study group. The hallmarks of cancer have been described as sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replicative immortality, inducing/accessing vasculature, activating invasion and metastasis, reprogramming cellular metabolism, avoiding immune destruction, deregulating cellular metabolism and avoiding immune destruction (Hanahan, 2022). Meanwhile, Hanahan (2022) notes that unravelling phenotypic plasticity, non-mutational epigenetic reprogramming, polymorphic microbiomes and senescent cells are likely to be incorporated into the cancer conceptualization of hallmarks. On this basis, the researchers have further revealed that cancer epigenetics, genomic instability and mutations play an important role in the acquisition of cancer hallmarks by cells (Ravi et al., 2022;Zhang et al., 2022).The emergence of the concept of cancer epigenetics has inspired a wide range of researchers to conduct more in-depth research into cancer mechanisms and cancer treatments. It is generally assumed that epigenetic abnormalities are caused by interactions between multiple protein complexes and their components, such as histone modifications, DNA methylation mechanisms, chromatin remodeling proteins and polycomb (PcG) proteins (Tsai and Baylin, 2011). Eighty per cent of human genome transcripts are non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that can regulate gene expression to modulate cancer progression, stemness, migration, and metastasis. According to the localization, length and function, ncRNAs can be classified into several types: rRNA, tRNA, snRNA, snoRNA, siRNA, piRNA, microRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA. Among them, microRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA play a critical role in tumorigenesis and cancer therapy. Alternative splicing defects are often found in cancer metastasis, invasion and the generation of drug resistance.The crosstalk among lncRNA, microRNA, and circRNA has become a critical regulatory mechanism in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Long non-coding RNAs are RNA molecules with transcriptional lengths longer than 200 nt and lacking

Natural products modulate cell apoptosis: a promising way for treating endometrial cancer

“…In recent years, natural products (NPs) have become a research hotspot in cancer treatment ( Huang et al, 2019 ; Atanasov et al, 2021 ; Kim et al, 2021 ; Anjum et al, 2022 ; Liu et al, 2022 ; Huang et al, 2023 ; Yuan et al, 2023 ) . NPs refer to components, isolated metabolites, and extracts from natural plants and be of multiple bioactivities, such as regulating oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and cellular apoptosis.…”

Bioengineered chimeric tRNA/pre‐miRNAs as prodrugs in cancer therapy

“…Currently, different strategies have been developed to inhibit oncogenes or upregulate tumor-suppressor genes in cancer, including viral/non-viral vectors, short palindromic repeats-associated endonuclease (CRISPR/Cas) systems, antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), triplex forming oligonucleotides (TFOs), aptamers, ribozymes and DNAzymes, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells, and also noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). [1][2][3][4] Short ncRNAs (20-30 nucleotides) including genome-derived microRNAs (miRNAs), exogenous small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), piwi-interaction RNAs (piRNAs), and small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are highly conserved sequences and a large class of main epigenetic factors. 5,6 Prodrugs are derivatives or precursors of active therapeutic molecules that are converted into an active in-vivo form through bio-catalytic mechanisms or spontaneous processes (e.g., hydrolytic degradation) or a combination of the two.…”