Noncoding RNAs in Growth and Death of Cancer Cells

Abstract

The mammalian genomes are mostly comprised of noncoding genes. And mammalian genomes are characterized by pervasive expression of different types of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). In sharp contrast to previous collections, these ncRNAs show strong purifying selection evolutionary conservation. Previous studies indicated that only a small fraction of the mammalian genome codes for messenger RNAs destined to be translated into peptides or proteins, and it is generally assumed that a large portion of transcribed sequences-including pseudogenes and several classes of ncRNAs-do not give rise to peptides or proteins. However, ribosome profiling suggests that ribosomes occupy many regions of the transcriptome thought to be noncoding. Moreover, these observations highlight a potentially large and complex set of biologically regulated translational events from transcripts formerly thought to lack coding potential. Furthermore, accumulating evidence from previous studies has suggested that the novel translation products exhibit temporal regulation similar to that of proteins known to be involved in many biological activity processes. In this review, we focus on the coding potential of noncoding genes and ncRNAs. We also sketched the possible mechanisms for their coding activities. Overall, our review provides new insights into the word of central dogma and is an expansive resource of functional annotations for biomedical research. At last, the outcome of the majority of the translation events and their potential biological purpose remain an intriguing topic for future investigation.

An Autophagy-Related Long Noncoding RNA Signature Contributes to Poor Prognosis in Colorectal Cancer

“…It mainly interacts with proteins, DNA, or RNA to regulate gene expression at the epigenetic, transcriptional, and posttranscriptional levels, and participates in many biological activities, such as transcriptional activation, transcriptional interference, and nuclear transport [ 11 ]. LncRNA can regulate the function and activity of autophagy-related DNA, RNA, or protein or affect autophagy-related stress factors and energy receptors, thereby participating in the regulation of cell autophagy [ 12 , 13 ]. For example, HAGLROS is a 699 bp lncRNA that can inhibit cell autophagy through the mammalian target of the rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, thereby promoting tumorigenesis and progression [ 14 , 15 ].…”

Knockdown of long non‐coding RNA linc‐ITGB1 inhibits cancer stemness and epithelial‐mesenchymal transition by reducing the expression of Snail in non‐small cell lung cancer

“…In addition to the canonical transcriptional programming during EMT, post‐transcriptional regulation by microRNAs and non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) plays an important role in gene regulation during EMT . LncRNAs, a class of non‐protein‐coding transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides, have emerged as key regulators of a wide range of biological processes, and their abnormal expression is closely associated with tumor proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and metastasis . Several lncRNAs, such as MALAT‐1 and lncRNAH19, are reported to participate in the regulation of EMT.…”

Long non‐coding RNAs in cancer: Another layer of complexity

“…In tumor cells, autophagy is also important, in some cases facilitating tumorigenesis and, in other contexts, suppressing cancer progression. Several recent studies have described lncRNA‐mediated effects on cell apoptosis and autophagy …”

“…Several recent studies have described lncRNAmediated effects on cell apoptosis and autophagy. 64 The lncRNA AFAP1-AS1 (actin filament-associated protein 1 antisense RNA 1) was found to be up-regulated in non-small cell lung cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma and pancreatic/esophageal adenocarcinoma. [65][66][67] AFAP1-AS1 knockdown in gastric cancer cells increases cleaved PARP, Caspase 3, Caspase 9 and BAX, and decreases BCL-2 expression, in relation to the increase of apoptosis levels.…”