miRNAs in Cancer Prevention and Treatment and as Molecular Targets for Natural Product Anticancer Agents

Title:miRNAs in Cancer Prevention and Treatment and as Molecular Targets for Natural Product Anticancer Agents

Volume: 13 Issue: 5

Author(s): Biyun Qian, Subhasree A. Nag, Yuliang Su, Sukesh Voruganti, Jiang-Jiang Qin, Ruiwen Zhang and William C. S. Cho

Affiliation:

Keywords: Biomarker, cancer diagnosis, cancer prognosis, cancer therapy, chemoprevention, epigenetics, microRNA, natural product, oncogene, tumor suppressor gene.

Abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression by binding to the 3´untranslated region of target mRNA, resulting in posttranscriptional gene silencing via mRNA degradation or translation inhibition. miRNAs are involved in many biological processes including carcinogenesis. They can act as oncogenes or tumor suppressors and their aberrant expressions are intimately linked with cancer development and progression. Therefore, miRNAs have been utilized as potential biomarkers for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, as well as cancer therapeutic targets. Recently, it has been demonstrated that dietary and natural chemopreventive agents exert their anticancer activities through the regulation of one or more miRNAs. In addition to expounding the latest findings of miRNAs in cancer, this review also discusses the recent efforts on the translational research of miRNAs, with an emphasis on natural products in the treatment of cancer.

Cite this article as:

Qian Biyun, Nag A. Subhasree, Su Yuliang, Voruganti Sukesh, Qin Jiang-Jiang, Zhang Ruiwen and Cho C. S. William, miRNAs in Cancer Prevention and Treatment and as Molecular Targets for Natural Product Anticancer Agents, Current Cancer Drug Targets 2013; 13 (5) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/15680096113139990031