LncRNAs and their role in cancer stem cells

Abstract

// <![CDATA[ $('.header-date').hide();$('#titleAuthors').hide();$('#abstractHeader').hide(); // ]]> Shusen Chen1, *, Jiamin Zhu1, *, Feng Wang1, *, Zhifeng Guan1, Yangyang Ge1, Xi Yang2 and Jing Cai1 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Nantong Tumor Hospital, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, 226321, China 2Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China *These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Jing Cai, email: cj7227@sina.com Xi Yang, email: ntgeorge@qq.com Keywords: cancer stem cells; lncRNA; cancer biology Received: June 14, 2017 Accepted: September 08, 2017 Published: October 30, 2017 ABSTRACT Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a vital role in the formation of tumors and have been studied as a target of anticancer therapy. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important in the genesis and progression of cancer. Various lncRNAs, such as ROR, HOTAIR, H19, UCA1, and ARSR, are involved in cancer stemness. These lncRNAs could regulate the expression of CSC-related transcriptional factors, such as SOX2, OCT4, and NANOG, in colorectal, prostate, bladder, breast, liver, and other cancer types. In this work, we review the progress of lncRNAs and cancer stem cells and discuss the potential signal pathways of lncRNAs in cancer stemness.