Cavallari I, Ciccarese F, Sharova E, Urso L, Raimondi V, Silic-Benussi M, D’Agostino DM, Ciminale V. The miR-200 Family of microRNAs: Fine Tuners of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Circulating Cancer Biomarkers.
Cancers (Basel) 2021;
13:5874. [PMID:
34884985 PMCID:
PMC8656820 DOI:
10.3390/cancers13235874]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Revised: 11/17/2021] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The miR-200 family of microRNAs (miRNAs) includes miR-200a, miR-200b, miR-200c, miR-141 and miR-429, five evolutionarily conserved miRNAs that are encoded in two clusters of hairpin precursors located on human chromosome 1 (miR-200b, miR-200a and miR-429) and chromosome 12 (miR-200c and miR-141). The mature -3p products of the precursors are abundantly expressed in epithelial cells, where they contribute to maintaining the epithelial phenotype by repressing expression of factors that favor the process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a key hallmark of oncogenic transformation. Extensive studies of the expression and interactions of these miRNAs with cell signaling pathways indicate that they can exert both tumor suppressor- and pro-metastatic functions, and may serve as biomarkers of epithelial cancers. This review provides a summary of the role of miR-200 family members in EMT, factors that regulate their expression, and important targets for miR-200-mediated repression that are involved in EMT. The second part of the review discusses the potential utility of circulating miR-200 family members as diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers for breast, colorectal, lung, ovarian, prostate and bladder cancers.
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