miRNAs in bone metastasis

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Bone metastasis is one of the most common forms of metastasis from a number of different primary carcinomas. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, endogenous RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression to control essential pathways, including those involved in bone organogenesis and homeostasis. As these pathways are often hijacked during bone metastasis, it is not surprising that miRNAs can also influence bone metastasis formation.

Areas covered: In this review, we first summarize the major signalling pathways involved in normal bone development and bone metastasis. We will then discuss the overall roles of miRNAs in cancer metastasis and highlight the recent findings on the effects of miRNAs in bone metastasis. To this aim, we have performed a literature search in PubMed by using the search words ‘miRNAs’ and ‘bone metastasis’, selecting relevant scientific articles published between 2010 and 2016. Seminal publications before 2010 on the metastatic role of miRNAs have also been considered.

Expert commentary: With the lack of current diagnostic biomarkers and effective targeted therapies for bone metastasis, the significant role of miRNAs in the regulation of bone homeostasis and bone metastasis may support the future use of miRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

KEYWORDS:

• Microrna
• bone metastasis
• cancer
• noncoding RNAs
• bone homeostasis

View correction statement:

Corrigendum

Declaration of interests

DG. Cheung is funded by NIH-NIGMS Grant T32-GM086252 and the OSU/HHMI Med into Grad Scholars Program. M. Buzzetti is funded by the Doctoral-Training Alliance PhD studentship. G. Di Leva is supported by Kidscan Pump Priming Award.

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded