microRNA-184 in the landscape of human malignancies: a review to roles and clinical significance
Mehdi Fattahi, Delsuz Rezaee, Fatemeh Fakhari, Sajad Najafi, Seyed Mohsen Aghaei Zarch, Parisa Beyranvand, Mohammad Amin Rashidi, Saeid Bagheri‐Mohammadi, Fahimeh Zamani Rarani, Mohammad Bakhtiari, Abbas Bakhtiari, Shahab Falahi, Azra Kenarkoohi, Jamal Majidpoor, Peter Nguyen
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) with a short length of 19-22 nucleotides. miRNAs are posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression involved in various biological processes like cell growth, apoptosis, and angiogenesis. miR-184 is a well-studied miRNA, for which most studies report its downregulation in cancer cells and tissues and experiments support its role as a tumor suppressor inhibiting malignant biological behaviors of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. To exert its functions, miR-184 affects some signaling pathways involved in tumorigenesis like Wnt and β-catenin, and AKT/mTORC1 pathway, oncogenic factors (e.g., c-Myc) or apoptotic proteins, such as Bcl-2. Interestingly, clinical investigations have shown miR-184 with good performance as a prognostic/diagnostic biomarker for various cancers. Additionally, exogenous miR-184 in cell and xenograft animal studies suggest it as a therapeutic anticancer target. In this review, we outline the studies that evaluated the roles of miR-184 in tumorigenesis as well as its clinical significance.