Emerging role of microRNAs in diagnosis and treatment of various diseases including ovarian cancer

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a class of small non-coding RNAs that control gene expression by targeting messenger RNA (mRNA). Recently, it has been demonstrated that miRNA expression is altered in many human diseases including cancers, suggesting that miRNA may play a potential role in the pathogenesis of different diseases. It has also been reported that there is a unique expression pattern of miRNAs in the disease state differing from the normal state. In this review, we focus on the miRNA signatures in different human diseases including cancers. Such signatures may be used as diagnostic and prognostic markers. © 2009 Shah et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.