Micro-RNA in Cholangiocarcinoma: Implications for Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Therapy

Bile-duct cancers (BDC) are a group of solid tumors arising from the biliary tree. Despite their classification as rare cancers, the incidence of BDC is increasing worldwide. Poor prognosis is a common feature of this type of cancer and is mainly determined by the following factors: late diagnosis,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Molecular Pathology Vol. 3; no. 2; pp. 88 - 103
Main Authors Barbato, Anna, Piscopo, Fabiola, Salati, Massimiliano, Reggiani-Bonetti, Luca, Franco, Brunella, Carotenuto, Pietro
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2022
Subjects
Antitumor agents
Apoptosis
bile duct cancer
Biomarkers
Carcinogenesis
Cell death
Cholangiocarcinoma
Clinical trials
Diagnosis
Gene expression
Genomes
Kinases
Metastases
microRNA
MicroRNAs
miRNA
Next-generation sequencing
Non-coding RNA
precision medicine
Prognosis
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
Solid tumors
Transcriptomes
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Summary:Bile-duct cancers (BDC) are a group of solid tumors arising from the biliary tree. Despite their classification as rare cancers, the incidence of BDC is increasing worldwide. Poor prognosis is a common feature of this type of cancer and is mainly determined by the following factors: late diagnosis, lack of effective therapeutic approaches, and resistance to conventional treatments. In the past few years, next-generation sequencing technologies has allowed us to study the genome, exome, and transcriptome of BDC deeper, revealing a previously underestimated class of RNA: the noncoding RNA (ncRNA). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small ncRNAs that play an important regulatory role in gene expression. The aberrant expression of miRNAs and their pivotal role as oncogenes or tumor suppressors in biliary carcinogenesis has been widely described in BDC. Due to their ability to regulate multiple gene networks, miRNAs are involved in all cancer hallmarks, including sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replicative immortality, inducing/accessing vasculature, activating invasion and metastasis, reprogramming cellular metabolism, and avoiding immune destruction. Their use as diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers has been widely explored in several human cancers, including BDC. Furthermore, miRNA-based therapeutic strategies are currently the subject of numerous clinical trials that are providing evidence of their efficacy as potent anticancer agents. In this review, we will provide a detailed update of miRNAs affecting BDC, discussing their regulatory function in processes underlying the molecular pathology of BDC. Finally, an overview of their potential use as biomarkers or therapeutic tools in BDC will be further addressed.
ISSN:2673-5261
2673-5261
DOI:10.3390/jmp3020009