Non-coding RNA in cancer drug resistance: Underlying mechanisms and clinical applications

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed malignant diseases worldwide, posing a serious, long-term threat to patients’ health and life. Systemic chemotherapy remains the first-line therapeutic approach for recurrent or metastatic cancer patients after surgery, with the potential to effectively extend patient survival. However, the development of drug resistance seriously limits the clinical efficiency of chemotherapy and ultimately results in treatment failure and patient death. A large number of studies have shown that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), particularly microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and circular RNAs, are widely involved in the regulation of cancer drug resistance. Their dysregulation contributes to the development of cancer drug resistance by modulating the expression of specific target genes involved in cellular apoptosis, autophagy, drug efflux, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and cancer stem cells (CSCs). Moreover, some ncRNAs also possess great potential as efficient, specific biomarkers in diagnosis and prognosis as well as therapeutic targets in cancer patients. In this review, we summarize the recent findings on the emerging role and underlying mechanisms of ncRNAs involved in cancer drug resistance and focus on their clinical applications as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer treatment. This information will be of great benefit to early diagnosis and prognostic assessments of cancer as well as the development of ncRNA-based therapeutic strategies for cancer patients.

CircRNA-miRNA-VEGFA: an important pathway to regulate cancer pathogenesis

“…Noncoding RNAs, such as miRNAs and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), have been found to be promising biomarkers for disease diagnosis or prognosis ( Liu et al, 2022a ; Wang et al, 2022 ; Zhang et al, 2022 ; Zhou et al, 2022 ). Moreover, miRNAs can be targets for the therapeutic drugs.…”

“…Cancer compromises human health and results in an economic burden for patients, healthcare systems, and countries. Thus, scientists have been exploring the mechanisms underlying cancer incidence and development ( Liu et al, 2022c ; Zhou et al, 2022 ). Vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGFA) is an important factor affecting cancer pathogenesis.…”

The Role of Circular RNA Variants Generated from the NFIX Gene in Different Diseases

“…10−13 circRNAs are characterized by covalent loops that differ from linear RNAs in that they lack the typical 5′ cap and 3′ poly(A) tail of a linear RNA. 14,15 Due to their unique structure and ability to regulate gene expression, circRNAs have gained increasing attention in research in recent years.…”

“…Noncoding RNAs were originally thought to be nonfunctional. , However, with the development of biological techniques, recent research has shown that noncoding RNAs actually play important roles in gene regulation, development, and other cellular processes. − MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can control and modulate the expression of over 60% of coding genes. − Long noncoding RNAs are known to be involved in the regulation of the development of various diseases. , circular RNAs (circRNAs) participate in different physiological and pathological processes through much more complicated mechanisms of action. They can affect miRNA and RNA binding protein activity, encode functional proteins, and regulate gene transcription. − circRNAs are characterized by covalent loops that differ from linear RNAs in that they lack the typical 5′ cap and 3′ poly­(A) tail of a linear RNA. , Due to their unique structure and ability to regulate gene expression, circRNAs have gained increasing attention in research in recent years.…”

Crosstalk between ubiquitin ligases and ncRNAs drives cardiovascular disease progression

“…Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), such as microRNAs (miRNAs), long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), circular RNAs (circRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are an increasing spectrum of transcriptional regulatory factors with no coding potential but significant structural and regulatory functions (20)(21)(22). MiRNAs are single-stranded RNAs consisting of 20-22 nucleotides, and their primary function is to combine complementary sequences on mRNAs to repress their translation (5).…”