MicroRNAs and cell cycle of malignant glioma

Abstract

The control of malignant glioma cell cycle by microRNAs (miRNAs) is well established. The deregulation of miRNAs in glioma may contribute to tumor proliferation by directly targeting the critical cell-cycle regulators. Tumor suppressive miRNAs inhibit cell cycle through repressing the expression of positive cell-cycle regulators. However, oncogenic miRNAs promote the cell-cycle progression by targeting cell-cycle negative regulators. Recent studies have identified that transcription factors had involved in the expression of miRNAs. Transcription factors and miRNAs are implicated in regulatory network of glioma cell cycle, the deregulation of these transcription factors might be a cause of the deregulation of miRNAs. Abnormal versions of miRNAs have been implicated in the cell cycle of glioma. Based on those, miRNAs are excellent biomarker candidates and potential targets for therapeutic intervention in glioma.

KEYWORDS:

• Glioma
• microRNAs
• cell cycle
• transcription factor
• biomarkers

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Zhou J and Dr. Zhong XX for technical assistance.

Declaration of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundations of China (NSFC, Nos. 81270039 and 30901538), Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2013M530388), and the National Natural Science Foundation from Chongqing Science and Technology Committee (No.cstc2012jjA0306).