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The emerging role of lncRNAs in cancer

Abstract

It is increasingly evident that many of the genomic mutations in cancer reside inside regions that do not encode proteins. However, these regions are often transcribed into long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). The recent application of next-generation sequencing to a growing number of cancer transcriptomes has indeed revealed thousands of lncRNAs whose aberrant expression is associated with different cancer types. Among the few that have been functionally characterized, several have been linked to malignant transformation. Notably, these lncRNAs have key roles in gene regulation and thus affect various aspects of cellular homeostasis, including proliferation, survival, migration or genomic stability. This review aims to summarize current knowledge of lncRNAs from the cancer perspective. It discusses the strategies that led to the identification of cancer-related lncRNAs and the methodologies and challenges involving the study of these molecules, as well as the imminent applications of these findings to the clinic.

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Figure 1: Identification and characterization of lncRNAs with roles in cancer.
Figure 2: LncRNAs are part of the c-MYC oncogenic and p53 tumor suppressor networks.
Figure 3: Diverse mechanisms of cancer-related lncRNAs.

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Acknowledgements

I thank the members of my laboratory and D. O'Brien for critical reading of the manuscript, and I apologize to colleagues whose work was not discussed or cited owing to space constraints. I am supported by European Research Council grant ERC-2011-StG 281877, and by Spanish Ministry of Science Grant RYC-2011-08347.

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Correspondence to Maite Huarte.

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Huarte, M. The emerging role of lncRNAs in cancer. Nat Med 21, 1253–1261 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3981

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