Perspectives of microRNAs in bladder cancer and their potential as biomarkers for the early diagnosis of the disease

Abstract

Bladder cancer is one of the most common malignant neoplasia. In 2020, the World Health Organization reported 573,278 cases and 212,536 deaths secondary to bladder cancer. The reported proportion of male and female is 4:1. As other malignant neoplasia, bladder cancer has shown that short molecules of non-coding ribonucleic acid, called microRNAs, play a regulatory role in the biological behavior of cancer cells and also in immune response cells. Around 2300 mature and functional miRNAs regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally by binding complementary bases to the messenger RNA sequence. This binding results in a decrease in messenger RNA translation and its subsequent degradation. There is also evidence that a specific microRNA can interact with various messenger RNA sequences, and conversely, a messenger RNA sequence can be the molecular target of multiple microRNAs. The aim of the present review is to show a general panorama of microRNAs role in bladder cancer cells.