Targeting Non-coding RNAs for Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, with limited progress in the development of cancer cell-specific, targeted, long-term therapeutic strategies. In the past decade, non-coding RNAs have emerged as novel and key modulators of cellular gene expression influencing both the transcriptional and posttranscriptional output. Seminal contributions of non-coding RNAs during development and disease have been described in many eukaryotic species including humans. To date, several different classes of non-coding RNA have been identified and can be broadly categorized mainly based on their size, structural characteristics, and proteins involved in their biogenesis. Recently, microRNAs, a small non-coding RNA species, and various long non-coding RNAs have been implicated and studied widely in multiple aspects of cancer initiation, progression, and metastasis. Understanding the mechanistic aspects of non-coding RNAs might hold the key, not only to decipher what goes awry in cancer but also most importantly to devise novel targeted therapeutic strategies in the coming years. In this chapter, we will provide a brief overview of non-coding RNAs, with emphasis on those RNAs whose levels are modulated during carcinogenesis.