Utility of microRNAs for the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Patients with Solid Tumors
Biomarkers
Greg M. Arndt, Ph.D. Drug Discovery Manager, Children’s Cancer Institute Australia Mitch Raponi, Ph.D. Principal Research Scientist, Centocor Research and Development
Introduction
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and involves a multi-step process in which a normal cell acquires specific phenotypic characteristics including self sufficiency in growth signals, evasion of apoptosis, limitless replicative potential, sustained angiogenesis and the ability to undergo tissue invasion and metastasis [1]. The initiation and progression of tumorigenesis is considered to be the result of genetic and epigenetic alterations in oncogenic and tumor suppressor genes. Until recently, most of these studies have focused on the 2% of the human transcriptome derived from protein coding genes. Although much has been learned about the factors involved in tumor initiation and evolution through the study of protein coding genes, the discovery of a previously unknown network of regulation in the form of small non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), called microRNAs (miRNAs), has expanded the potential mechanisms contributing to the origin of different cancers [2].
This article was published in the October/November 2009 issue of International Drug Discovery, Volume 4, Issue 1, on pgs. 23-29.
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