The interaction between lncRNAs and transcription factors regulating autophagy in human cancers: A comprehensive and therapeutical survey

Abstract Autophagy, as a highly conserved cellular process, participates in cellular homeostasis by degradation and recycling of damaged organelles and proteins. Besides, autophagy has been evidenced to play a dual role through cancer initiation and progression. In the early stage, it may have a tumor‐suppressive function through inducing apoptosis and removing damaged cells and organelles. However, late stages promote tumor progression by maintaining stemness features and induction of chemoresistance. Therefore, identifying and targeting molecular mechanisms involved in autophagy is a potential therapeutic strategy for human cancers. Multiple transcription factors (TFs) are involved in the regulation of autophagy by modulating the expression of autophagy‐related genes (ATGs). In addition, a wide array of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), a group of regulatory ncRNAs, have been evidenced to regulate the function of these autophagy‐related TFs through tumorigenesis. Subsequently, the lncRNAs/TFs/ATGs axis shows great potential as a therapeutic target for human cancers. Therefore, this review aimed to summarize new findings about the role of lncRNAs in regulating autophagy‐related TFs with therapeutic perspectives.