Correlation of long non-coding RNA expression with metastasis, drug resistance and clinical outcome in cancer

// Ehsan Malek 1, 2 , Sajjeev Jagannathan 1, 2 , James J. Driscoll 1, 2, 3 1 The Vontz Center for Molecular Studies, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 2 Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 3 Department of Cancer Biology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH Correspondence to: Dr. James J. Driscoll, e-mail: driscojs@uc.edu Keywords: non-coding RNAs, long-non-coding RNAs, microRNAs, HOTAIR, overall survival Received: August 04, 2014      Accepted: September 06, 2014      Published: September 29, 2014 ABSTRACT The therapeutic response and clinical outcome of patients diagnosed with the same cancer type and that receive identical treatment is highly variable to reflect the genetic heterogeneity within tumor cells. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are recently discovered molecules that regulate eukaryotic gene expression and represent a significant advance towards a better understanding of the mechanisms that govern cellular growth. NcRNAs are essential for the proper regulation of cell proliferation and survival under physiologic conditions and are deregulated in many pathologies, e.g., human cancers. NcRNAs have been associated with cancer diagnosis, staging, treatment response, metastasis and survival and include distinct subtypes, e.g., long ncRNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). LncRNAs have been linked to essential growth-promoting activities and their deregulation contributes to tumor cell survival. A prominent example is the Hox transcript antisense intergenic lncRNA, HOTAIR , that cooperates with the polycomb repressive complex to reprogram chromatin organization. HOTAIR expression is deregulated in a spectrum of cancers and HOTAIR expression correlates with patient survival. Here, we highlight emerging evidence that supports a role for lncRNAs in cancer with implications for the development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics.