An emerging understanding of long noncoding RNAs in kidney cancer

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are pervasively transcribed in the genome and are emerging as new players in tumorigenesis.

An electronic search of all relevant publications in peer-reviewed journals before April 2014 was performed on PubMed, Google scholar databases. The keywords of long-coding RNAs, lncRNAs, kidney tumor, renal cancers were used for searching.

The lncRNA biology was introduced into cancer biology from contemporary research, and the regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs was highlighted at transcriptional, post-transcriptional and epigenetic levels. The kidney cancer-associated onco-lncRNAs (e.g., KCQN1OT1, MALAT-1 and HOTAIT) and tumor suppressive lncRNAs (e.g., H19, GAS5 and MEG3) were summarized and their possible regulatory network was depicted in a comprehensive diagram.

LncRNAs are deregulated in various cancers including kidney cancer, demonstrating both oncogenic and tumor suppressive roles, thus suggesting their aberrant expression may be a substantial contributor in cancer development. LncRNAs could serve as potential diagnostics biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets.