摘要
Tumor metastasis is one of the most serious challenges for human cancers as the majority of deaths caused by cancer are associated with metastasis,rather than the primary tumor.Recent studies have demonstrated that tumor cell plasticity plays a critical role in tumor metastasis by giving rise to various cell types which is necessary for tumor to invade adjacent tissues and form distant metastasis.These include differentiation of cancer stem cells(CSCs),or epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)and its reverse process,mesenchymal-epithelial transition(MET).A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that the biology of tumor cell plasticity is tightly linked to functions of non-coding RNAs(ncRNAs),especially microRNAs(miRNAs)and long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs).Therefore,understanding the mechanisms how non-coding RNAs regulate tumor cell plasticity is essential for discovery of new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets to overcome metastasis.
Tumor metastasis is one of the most serious challenges for human cancers as the majority of deaths caused by cancer are asso- ciated with metastasis, rather than the primary tumor. Recent studies have demonstrated that tumor cell plasticity plays a criti- cal role in tumor metastasis by giving rise to various cell types which is necessary for tumor to invade adjacent tissues and form distant metastasis. These include differentiation of cancer stem cells （CSCs）, or epithelial-mesenchymal transition （EMT） and its reverse process, mesenchymal-epithelial transition （MET）. A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that the bi- ology of tumor cell plasticity is tightly linked to functions of non-coding RNAs （ncRNAs）, especially microRNAs （miRNAs） and long non-coding RNAs （lncRNAs）. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms how non-coding RNAs regulate tumor cell plasticity is essential for discovery of new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets to overcome metastasis.
基金
supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(2010CB912800,2011CB504203)
National Natural Science Foundation of China(81230060,81261140373)
National Science and Technology Major Special Project on New Drug Innovation of China(2011ZX09102010-02)
Science Foundation of Guangdong Province(S2012030006287)
Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Gene Regulation and Target Therapy of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes,Sun Yat-sen University(KLB09001)
