MicroRNA in Cancer and Cachexia--A Mini-Review

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs with a length of approximately 22 nucleotides that are involved in posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. miRNAs cover an important role in all biological processes, and aberrant miRNA expression is commonly associated with cancer. Recent discoveries have associated the involvement of miRNA in an increasingly large number of biological processes, including cachexia. The cachexia syndrome is a debilitating state of cancer that is, at least in part, associated with apoptosis. The mechanism through which tumors promote the characteristic distal loss of muscle and fat mass during the cachectic process is still not deeply investigated. In this review, we briefly describe the role of miRNAs in cancer development and cachexia.