doi: 10.5732/cjc.011.10132

Apoptosis and the target genes of microRNA-21

Lindsey E. Becker Buscaglia, Yong Li

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, 319 Abraham Flexner Way, Louisville, KY 40202, USA. yong.li@louisville.edu.

[Abstract] MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) is frequently up-regulated in cancer and the majority of its reported targets are tumor suppressors. Through functional suppression, miR-21 is implicated in practically every walk of oncogenic life: the promotion of cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis, genome instability and mutation, inflammation, replicative immortalization, abnormal metabolism, angiogenesis, and evading apoptosis, immune destruction, and growth suppressors. In particular, miR-21 is strongly involved in apoptosis. In this article, we reviewed the experimentally validated targets of miR-21 and found that two thirds are linked to intrinsic and/or extrinsic pathways of cellular apoptosis. This suggests that miR-21 is an oncogene which plays a key role in resisting programmed cell death in cancer cells and that targeting apoptosis is a viable therapeutic option against cancers expressing miR-21.

Chinese Journal of Cancer 2011, Volume: 30, Issue 6, Page: 371-380

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Lindsey E. Becker Buscaglia, Yong Li. Apoptosis and the target genes of microRNA-21 . Chin J Cancer. 2011, 30(6):371-380. doi:10.5732/cjc.011.10132


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