Targeting Autophagy Using Long Non-Coding RNAs (LncRNAs): New Landscapes in the Arena of Cancer Therapeutics

Overview

Journal Cells

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Biochemistry
Biophysics
Cell Biology
Molecular Biology

Date 2023 Mar 11

PMID 36899946

Authors

Aviral Kumar

Sosmitha Girisa

Mohammed S AlQahtani

Mohamed Abbas

Mangala Hegde

Gautam Sethi

Ajaikumar B Kunnumakkara

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Cancer has become a global health hazard accounting for 10 million deaths in the year 2020. Although different treatment approaches have increased patient overall survival, treatment for advanced stages still suffers from poor clinical outcomes. The ever-increasing prevalence of cancer has led to a reanalysis of cellular and molecular events in the hope to identify and develop a cure for this multigenic disease. Autophagy, an evolutionary conserved catabolic process, eliminates protein aggregates and damaged organelles to maintain cellular homeostasis. Accumulating evidence has implicated the deregulation of autophagic pathways to be associated with various hallmarks of cancer. Autophagy exhibits both tumor-promoting and suppressive effects based on the tumor stage and grades. Majorly, it maintains the cancer microenvironment homeostasis by promoting viability and nutrient recycling under hypoxic and nutrient-deprived conditions. Recent investigations have discovered long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) as master regulators of autophagic gene expression. lncRNAs, by sequestering autophagy-related microRNAs, have been known to modulate various hallmarks of cancer, such as survival, proliferation, EMT, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis. This review delineates the mechanistic role of various lncRNAs involved in modulating autophagy and their related proteins in different cancers.

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