MicroRNAs and cancer drug resistance

Abstract

The discovery of small regulatory noncoding RNAs revolutionized our thinking on gene regulation. The class of microRNAs (miRs), a group of small noncoding RNAs (20-22 nt in length) that bind imperfectly to the 3′-untranslated region of target mRNA, has been insistently implicated in several pathological conditions including cancer. Indeed, major hallmarks of cancer, such as cell differentiation, cell proliferation, cell cycle, cell survival, and cell invasion, has been described as being regulated by miRs. Recent studies have also implicated miRs in cancer drug resistance. Regardless of the several studies done until now, drug resistance still is a burden for cancer therapy and patients’ outcome, often resulting in more aggressive tumors that tend to metastasize to distant organs. Hence, with this review, we aim to summarize the miRs that influence molecular pathways that are involved in cancer drug resistance, such as drug metabolism, drug influx/efflux, DNA damage response (DDR), epithelial-to- mesenchymal transition (EMT), and cancer stem cells.