MicroRNA Polymorphisms in Cancer: A Literature Analysis

Cancers

Veronika Pipan²  Minja Zorc²  Tanja Kunej¹ 

[1] Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Groblje 3, SI-1230 Domzale, Slovenia;

关键词: microRNA (miRNA);    cancer;    single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP);   

DOI  :  10.3390/cancers7030863

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in microRNA (miRNA) genes (miR-SNPs) have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their involvement in the development of various types of cancer. Therefore, a systematic review on this topic was needed. From 55 scientific publications we collected 20 SNPs, which are located within 18 miRNA encoding genes and have been associated with 16 types of cancer. Among 20 miRNA gene polymorphisms 13 are located within the premature miRNA region, five within mature, and two within mature seed miRNA region. We graphically visualized a network of miRNA-cancer associations which revealed miRNA genes and cancer types with the highest number of connections. Our study showed that, despite a large number of variations currently known to be located within miRNA genes in humans, most of them have not yet been tested for association with cancer. MicroRNA SNPs collected in this study represent only 0.43% of known miRNA gene variations (20/4687). Results of the present study will be useful to researchers investigating the clinical use of miRNAs, such as the roles of miRNAs as diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.