Журнал клинической и экспериментальной онкологии

The Role of MicroRNAs in Cancer Progression

Seyedeh Elham Norollahi, Majid Alipour, Novin Nikbakhsh, Hassan Taheri, Mohammad Taghi Hamidian, Sadegh Fattahi, Seyed Reza Tabaripour, Aghil Mollatabar Hassan, Amir Hossein Esmaili, Ali Akbar Samadani, Sara Hallajian, Saed Alinejade Moalemi and Amir Mahmoud Afshar

MicroRNAs or miRNAs are none coding RNAs with eclectic biological functions and mechanism. They also have remarkable and pathological implications in many serious diseases. Correspondingly, given their role as post-transcriptional gene expression regulators, they are included in several important physiological processes such as: cell signaling, development and cell differentiation. Thus, miRNAs perform as modulators of gene expression programs in diverse diseases, especially in cancer development, where they accomplish through the expression of genes which are essential for carcinogenesis process. Relatively, the expression level of mature miRNAs is the conclusion of a well done mechanism of biogenesis, done by diverse enzymatic processes that assert their activities at transcriptional and post-transcriptional stages. In this review article we discuss and focus the molecular mechanism in conjunction with potential applications of microRNAs for the clinical and practical approaches in cancer development. Interestingly, we also cover the importance or to be affected by genetic and also epigenetic factors.