Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2008 Dec;27 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):S52-7.
doi: 10.1038/onc.2009.353.

MicroRNAs as potential cancer therapeutics

P Trang  1 , J B Weidhaas, F J Slack
Affiliations
Review

MicroRNAs as potential cancer therapeutics

P Trang et al. Oncogene. 2008 Dec.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to have an important role in various cellular processes, such as apoptosis, differentiation and development. Recent studies have shown that miRNAs are mis-expressed in human cancers where they can exert their effect as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Here, we review the potential for using miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and cancer therapies.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

FJ Slack and JB Weidhaas own equity in 3primiR and have received grant support from Asuragen. They also hold a number of pending patents in the miRNA area. The remaining author declares no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Bartel DP. (2004). MicroRNAs: genomics, biogenesis, mechanism, and function. Cell 116: 281–297. - PubMed
    1. Bloomston M, Frankel WL, Petrocca F, Volinia S, Alder H, Hagan JP et al. (2007). MicroRNA expression patterns to differentiate pancreatic adenocarcinoma from normal pancreas and chronic pancreatitis. JAMA 297: 1901–1908. - PubMed
    1. Bonci D, Coppola V, Musumeci M, Addario A, Giuffrida R, Memeo L et al. (2008). The miR-15a-miR-16–1 cluster controls prostate cancer by targeting multiple oncogenic activities. Nat Med 14: 1271–1277. - PubMed
    1. Calin GA, Dumitru CD, Shimizu M, Bichi R, Zupo S, Noch E et al. (2002). Frequent deletions and down-regulation of micro-RNA genes miR15 and miR16 at 13q14 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99: 15524–15529. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Calin GA, Sevignani C, Dumitru CD, Hyslop T, Noch E, Yendamuri S et al. (2004). Human microRNA genes are frequently located at fragile sites and genomic regions involved in cancers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101: 2999–3004. - PMC - PubMed