MiRNA Molecular Profiles in Human Medical Conditions: Connecting Lung Cancer and Lung Development Phenomena

Abstract

MiRNAs are endogenous, single stranded ~22-nucleotide non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) which are transcribed by RNA polymerase II and mediate negative post-transcriptional gene regulation through binding to 3'untranslated regions (UTR), possibly open reading frames (ORFs) or 5'UTRs of target mRNAs. MiRNAs are involved in the normal physiology of eukaryotic cells, so dysregulation may be associated with diseases like cancer, and neurodegenerative, heart and other disorders. Among all cancers, lung cancer, with high incidence and mortality worldwide, is classified into two main groups: non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. Recent promising studies suggest that gene expression profiles and miRNA signatures could be a useful step in a noninvasive, low-cost and repeatable screening process of lung cancer. Similarly, every stage of lung development during fetal life is associated with specific miRNAs. Since lung development and lung cancer phenomena share the same physiological, biological and molecular processes like cell proliferation, development and shared mRNA or expression regulation pathways, and according to data adopted from various studies, they may have partially shared miRNA signature. Thus, focusing on lung cancer in relation to lung development in miRNA studies might provide clues for lung cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

Identification of microRNAs associated with glioma diagnosis and prognosis

“…These molecules have diverse biological functions in glioma initiation and progression [4–8]. More than half of all miRNAs inhibit target gene expression by binding to complementary sequences in the 3’ untranslated regions of mRNAs [9, 10]. A single miRNA may have hundreds of mRNA targets, and a single gene may have hundreds of miRNA regulators.…”

LSGSP: a novel miRNA–disease association prediction model using a Laplacian score of the graphs and space projection federated method

“…Of the predicted top 50 lung neoplasm-related miRNAs, all were found in the above three databases. However, Aghanoori et al 92 found that hsa-mir-302d was down-regulated in lung cancer tissue. Therefore, supporting evidence for the prediction capabilities of LSGSP for potential disease-miRNA associations and isolated disease-miRNA associations was found from the databases and was validated by the latest literature studies, which means that LSGSP has excellent predictive performance.…”

MicroRNA‑133a downregulated EGFR expression in human non‑small cell lung cancer cells via AKT/ERK signaling

“…Through interactions with a negative regulatory sequence in the 3'-non-coding region of specific mRNA targets, miRNA regulation is involved in a wide variety of normal and abnormal cell behaviors (10). miRNAs have potential as tumor biomarkers (11). Although the functions of a number of miRNAs have yet to be elucidated, miRNAs have been implicated in a wide range of physiological and developmental processes (10).…”