A microRNA Cluster as a Potential Breast Cancer Oncogene
Abstract
To date, most cancer research has focused on alterations in the sequence, gene structure, copy number and expression of protein coding genes. However, there are increasing studies discovered that a diversity of non-coding RNAs decoded in the genome also plays an essential role in cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are small, 21-24nt RNAs generated by the key enzyme Dicer, represent a prominent class of such non-coding RNAs. It has been reported that some miRNAs act as oncogenes to promote tumor formation in collaboration with protein-coding oncogenes. On the other hand, several miRNAs are found to function as tumor suppressors. Our previous study revealed a miRNA family, miR-34, as direct transcriptional target of p53, the master tumor suppressor gene. To address the role of miR-34 in cancer formation and maintenance, we generated cell lines overexpressing miR-34. We have demonstrated that ectopic expression of miR-34 in both primary and tumor cell lines can induce growth arrest through repression of cell cycle genes, and we have shown in animal models that tumor cells over expressing miR-34 have disadvantage in tumor initiation and maintenance. Our work placed miRNAs as one of the central mediators of p53 tumor suppressor network, which plays an important role in many cancer types, including breast cancer.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA519641
Entities
People
- Gregory Hannon
Organizations
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory