MicroRNA: potential targets for the development of novel drugs?

MicroRNA (miRNA) is an endogenous non-protein coding small RNA molecule that negatively regulates gene expression by the degradation of messenger RNA (mRNA) or the suppression of mRNA translation. miRNA plays important roles in physiologic processes such as cellular development, differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, and stem cell self-renewal. Studies show that deregulation of miRNA expression is closely associated with tumorigenicity, invasion, and metastasis. The functionality of aberrant miRNAs in cancer could act either as oncogenes or tumor suppressors during tumor initiation and progression. Similar to protein-coding gene regulation, dysregulation of miRNAs may be related to changes in miRNA gene copy numbers, epigenetic modulation, polymorphisms, or biogenesis modifications. Elucidation of the miRNA expression profiles (miRNomes) of many types of cancers is starting to decode the regulatory network of miRNA-mRNA interactions from a systems biology perspective. Experimental evidence demonstrates that modulation of specific miRNA alterations in cancer cells using miRNA replacement or anti-miRNA technologies can restore miRNA activities and repair gene regulatory networks affecting apoptotic signaling pathways or drug sensitivity, and improve the outcome of treatment. Numerous animal studies for miRNA-based therapy offer the hope of targeting miRNAs as an alternative cancer treatment. Developing the small molecules to interfere with miRNAs could be of great pharmaceutical interest in the future.