Therapeutic microRNA strategies in human cancer

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are approximately 22 nucleotide long, noncoding, endogenous RNA molecules which exert their functions by base pairing with messenger RNAs (mRNAs), thereby regulate protein-coding gene expression. In eukaryotic cells, miRNAs play important roles in regulating biological processes such as proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and stem cell self-renewal. The human genome may contain as many as 1,000 miRNAs, and more than 700 of them have been identified. miRNAs are predicted to target up to one third of mRNAs. Each miRNA can target hundreds of transcripts directly or indirectly, while more than one miRNA can converge on a single transcript target. Therefore, the potential regulatory circuitry afforded by miRNA is enormous. Recently, mounting evidence implicates miRNAs as a new class of modulator for human tumor initiation and progression. Therefore, it has been proposed that manipulating miRNA activity and miRNA biogenesis may be a novel avenue for developing efficient therapies against cancer.