The emerging role of noncoding RNA in prostate cancer progression and its implication on diagnosis and treatment

Abstract

Recent transcriptome studies using next-generation sequencing have detected aberrant changes in the expression of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) associated with cancer. For prostate cancer, the expression levels of ncRNAs including microRNAs and long noncoding RNAs are strongly associated with diagnosis, carcinogenesis and tumor growth. Moreover, androgen and its cognate receptor, androgen receptor (AR), regulate various signaling pathways for prostate tumor growth. In addition, progression to lethal castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is also owing to AR function. Systematic analysis of AR-binding sites and their regulated transcripts revealed that many ncRNAs are widely regulated at the transcriptional level. Thus, recent studies provide new insight into the complicated molecular mechanism of prostate cancer progression. This review focused on the role of various ncRNAs in prostate cancer and the association between their expression and CRPC.