Chen WQ, Hu L, Chen GX, Deng HX. Role of microRNA-7 in digestive system malignancy. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2016; 8(1): 121-127 [PMID: 26798443 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i1.121]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hai-Xia Deng, MD, PhD, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, No. 111 Dade Road, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China. hxd6870@126.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jan 15, 2016; 8(1): 121-127 Published online Jan 15, 2016. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i1.121
Role of microRNA-7 in digestive system malignancy
Wan-Qun Chen, Ling Hu, Geng-Xin Chen, Hai-Xia Deng
Wan-Qun Chen, Hai-Xia Deng, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China
Wan-Qun Chen, Ling Hu, Institute of Gastroenterology, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510004, Guangdong Province, China
Geng-Xin Chen, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Clinical Research on Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Chen WQ wrote and reviewed the manuscript; Hu L assisted in revising the manuscript; Deng HX contributed to the concept, design and editing of this manuscript; Chen GX and Deng HX contributed equally to this work.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81273735; Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China, No. 2013B021800169; Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Research Projects of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, China, No. YN2014ZH05.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest in this work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hai-Xia Deng, MD, PhD, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, No. 111 Dade Road, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China. hxd6870@126.com
Telephone: +86-20-81887233 Fax: +86-20-81887233
Received: April 14, 2015 Peer-review started: April 16, 2015 First decision: June 19, 2015 Revised: July 3, 2015 Accepted: August 29, 2015 Article in press: November 19, 2015 Published online: January 15, 2016 Processing time: 56 Days and 9.6 Hours
Abstract
There are several malignancies of the digestive system (including gastric, pancreatic and colorectal cancers, and hepatocellular carcinoma), which are the most common types of cancer and a major cause of death worldwide. MicroRNA (miR)-7 is abundant in the pancreas, playing an important role in pancreatic development and endocrine function. Expression of miR-7 is downregulated in digestive system malignancies compared with normal tissue. Although there are contrasting results for miR-7 expression, almost all research reveals that miR-7 is a tumor suppressor, by targeting various genes in specific pathways. Moreover, miR-7 can target different genes simultaneously in different malignancies of the digestive system. By acting on many cytokines, miR-7 is also involved in many gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases as a significant carcinogenic factor. Consequently, miR-7 might be a biomarker or therapeutic target gene in digestive system malignancies.
Core tip: MicroRNA (miR)-7 targets different genes in various complicated pathways and plays diagnostic, prognostic, anti-metastatic, and therapeutic roles in digestive system malignancies. MiR-7 might be a biomarker or therapeutic target gene in digestive system malignancies, even in the precancerous lesions (inflammatory disease).
