RNA editing in human cancer: review

In eukaryotes mRNA transcripts are extensively processed by different post-transcriptional events such as alternative splicing and RNA editing in order to generate many different mRNAs from the same gene, increasing the transcriptome and then the proteome diversity. The most frequent RNA editing mechanism in mammals involves the conversion of specific adenosines into inosines by the ADAR family of enzymes. This editing event can alter the sequence and the secondary structure of RNA molecules, with consequences for final proteins and regulatory RNAs. Alteration in RNA editing has been connected to tumor progression and many other important human diseases. Analysis of many editing sites in various cancer types is expected to provide new diagnostic and prognostic markers and might contribute to early detection of cancer, the monitoring of response to therapy, and to the detection of minimal residual disease.