MicroRNA-21 as a biomarker and potential therapeutic target in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has the worst prognosis among all cancers due to latestage diagnosis, limited detection and treatment methods. MiRNAs are post-transcriptional regulators, recently reported to have numerous functions, including modulation of cellular differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis, Several tumor suppressors, such as PTEN, TPM1, and PDCD4 were identified as miR-21 targets. MiR-21 is stable in both tissues and plasma, disease-specific and therefore it appears to be a promising biomarker for benign and malignant diseases of pancreas. Current evidence suggests that miR-21 overexpression is associated with shorter overall survival, higher rate of liver and regional lymph nodes metastases.