Molecular Mechanisms in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: Role of miRNAs and Hypermethylated miRNA Genes in Crucial Oncogenic Pathways and Processes

Molecular Mechanisms in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: Role of miRNAs and Hypermethylated miRNA Genes in Crucial Oncogenic Pathways and Processes Eleonora A. Braga1*†, Marina V. Fridman2†, Vitaly I. Loginov1,3, Alexey A. Dmitriev4 and Sergey G. Morozov1 1Institute of General Pathology and Pathophysiology, Moscow, Russia 2Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 3Research Center of Medical Genetics, Moscow, Russia 4Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the third most common urological cancer, and it has the highest mortality rate. The increasing drug resistance of metastatic ccRCC has resulted in the search for new biomarkers. Epigenetic regulatory mechanisms, such as genome-wide DNA methylation and inhibition of protein translation by interaction of microRNA (miRNA) with its target messenger RNA (mRNA), are deeply involved in the pathogenesis of human cancers, including ccRCC, and may be used in its diagnosis and prognosis. Here, we review oncogenic and oncosuppressive miRNAs, their putative target genes, and the crucial pathways they are involved in. The contradictory behavior of a number of miRNAs, such as suppressive and anti-metastatic miRNAs with oncogenic potential (for example, miR-99a, miR-106a, miR-125b, miR-144, miR-203, miR-378), is examined. miRNAs that contribute mostly to important pathways and processe...
Source: Frontiers in Genetics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research