title: MicroRNAs function as tumor suppressors or oncogenes: aberrant expression of microRNAs in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous short non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression by repressing translation or cleaving RNA transcripts in a sequence-specific manner. Bioinformatic analyses predict that miRNAs regulate more than 30% of protein coding genes. To date, 1921 human mature miRNAs have been registered in miRBase release 18.0 (http://microrna.sanger.ac.uk/). A growing body of evidence suggests that miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in many human carcinomas and that they play key roles in the initiation, development and metastasis of human cancers, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). In this review, eight genome-wide miRNA expression profiles were used to selected aberrantly expressed miRNAs (up-regulated and down-regulated miRNAs) in HNSCC clinical specimens including our miRNA profiles of hypopharyngeal and maxillary sinus squamous cell carcinoma. We discuss recent findings on the aberrant expression of miRNAs and their contribution to human HNSCC oncogenesis.
authors: Department of Functional Genomics, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan.
authors: Nijiro
authors: N
authors: Nohata
authors: Toyoyuki
authors: T
authors: Hanazawa
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Kinoshita
authors: Yoshitaka
authors: Y
authors: Okamoto
authors: Naohiko
authors: N
authors: Seki
mesh_terms: D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D015536:Down-Regulation; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor / Q000502:physiology*; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D009857:Oncogenes / Q000235:genetics*; D000077195:Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck; D059467:Transcriptome; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs