miR-221/222及其靶基因与恶性肿瘤关系的研究进展

Progress of miR-221/222 and their target genes in the occurrence and development of malignant tumors

miR-221和miR-222 (miR-221/222)是由同一祖先基因重复产生的旁系同源物,它们在核酸序列上非常接近,并具有相同的种子序列"AGCUACAU"。miR-221/222在正常内皮细胞中高表达,在心血管系统的发育和生理功能的维持方面发挥重要作用,其异常表达与心血管疾病、代谢性疾病、免疫性疾病、神经退行性疾病等的发生发展密切相关。近年研究发现,miR-221/222在多种恶性肿瘤中异常表达,并与肿瘤细胞的增殖、分化、凋亡、侵袭和转移密切相关,有望作为肿瘤标志物用于恶性肿瘤患者的诊断及预后判断,也为恶性肿瘤的治疗提供了新的靶点。该文就mi R-221/222及其靶基因与恶性肿瘤关系的研究进展进行综述。

miR-221 and miR-222(miR-221/222) are paralogues arisen from the duplication of the ancestral gene. They are highly homologous miRNAs with identical seed sequence "AGCUACAU". miR-221/222 are highly expressed in normal endothelial cells and play important roles in vascular biology. Their abnormal expression is closely related to the occurrence and development of cardiovascular, metabolic, immune or neurodegenerative diseases. Recent studies have shown that miR-221/222 were dysregulated in a variety of malignant tumors and were involved in the proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, invasion and metastasis of tumor cells, indicating that they might be not only bio-markers for diagnosis and prognosis of cancers, but also promising targets for malignant tumor treatment. The progress of miR-221/222 and their target genes in malignant tumors were reviewed in this paper.