Open AccessMicroRNA in Cancer: The Involvement of Aberrant MicroRNA Biogenesis Regulatory Pathways
Author(s) -
Brandi N. DavisDusenbery,
Akiko Hata
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
genes and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.883
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1947-6027
pISSN - 1947-6019
DOI - 10.1177/1947601910396213
Subject(s) - microrna , biogenesis , carcinogenesis , biology , psychological repression , computational biology , drosha , regulation of gene expression , bioinformatics , gene silencing , cancer , gene expression , gene , genetics , rna interference , rna
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs that influence diverse biological outcomes through the repression of target genes during normal development and pathological responses. In particular, the alteration of miRNA expression has dramatic consequences for the progression of tumorigenesis. miRNAs undergo two processing steps that transform a long primary transcript into the mature miRNA. Although the general miRNA biogenesis pathway is well established, it is clear that not all miRNAs are created equally. Recent studies show that miRNA expression is controlled by diverse mechanisms in response to cellular stimuli. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms that govern the regulation of miRNA biogenesis with particular focus on how these mechanisms are perturbed in cancer.