title: Apoptosis and the target genes of microRNA-21.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40202, USA.
authors.forename: Lindsey E Becker
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Buscaglia
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase / Q000378:metabolism; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; C524940:MIRN21 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs; C114487:PDCD4 protein, human; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase