Noncoding RNAs in cancer immunity: functions, regulatory mechanisms, and clinical application

• Published in: Molecular cancer Vol. 19; no. 1; p. 48
• Main Authors: Zhang, Le, Xu, Xiaonan, Su, Xiulan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 02.03.2020; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Biomarkers, Tumor - genetics; Cancer; Cytotoxicity; Development and progression; Disease Progression; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Genotype & phenotype; Health aspects; Humans; Hypotheses; Immune system; Immunology; Immunotherapy; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; MicroRNA; miRNA; Neoplasms - genetics; Neoplasms - immunology; Neoplasms - pathology; Non-coding RNA; Pathogens; Phosphatase; Physiology; Review; RNA, Long Noncoding - genetics; Roles; Signal Transduction; T cells; Therapeutic applications; Tumor Microenvironment - immunology; Tumorigenesis; Tumors
• ISSN: 1476-4598; 1476-4598
• DOI: 10.1186/s12943-020-01154-0

It is well acknowledged that immune system is deeply involved in cancer initiation and progression, and can exert both pro-tumorigenic and anti-tumorigenic effects, depending on specific microenvironment. With the better understanding of cancer-associated immune cells, especially T cells, immunotherapy was developed and applied in multiple cancers and exhibits remarkable efficacy. However, currently only a subset of patients have responses to immunotherapy, suggesting that a boarder view of cancer immunity is required. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), mainly including microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), are identified as critical regulators in both cancer cells and immune cells, thus show great potential to serve as new therapeutic targets to improve the response of immunotherapy. In this review, we summarize the functions and regulatory mechanisms of ncRNAs in cancer immunity, and highlight the potential of ncRNAs as novel targets for immunotherapy.