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World J Gastroenterol. Feb 7, 2018; 24(5): 549-572
Published online Feb 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i5.549
Behind the curtain of non-coding RNAs; long non-coding RNAs regulating hepatocarcinogenesis
Aya El Khodiry, Menna Afify, Hend M El Tayebi
Aya El Khodiry, Menna Afify, Hend M El Tayebi, Genetic Pharmacology Research Group, Clinical Pharmacy Unit, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, German University in Cairo, Cairo 11835, Egypt
Author contributions: El Khodiry A and Afify M contributed in literature reviewing, manuscript writing and editing; El Tayebi HM contributed in designation, revision and correction of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hend M El Tayebi, PhD, Assistant Professor, Head of Genetic Pharmacology Research Group, Clinical Pharmacy Unit, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, German University in Cairo, Cairo 11835, Egypt. hend.saber@guc.edu.eg
Telephone: +20-1005566415 Fax: +20-2-27581041
Received: November 13, 2017
Peer-review started: November 13, 2017
First decision: December 13, 2017
Revised: January 17, 2018
Accepted: January 23, 2018
Article in press: January 23, 2018
Published online: February 7, 2018
Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and aggressive cancers worldwide. HCC is the fifth common malignancy in the world and the second leading cause of cancer death in Asia. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are RNAs with a length greater than 200 nucleotides that do not encode proteins. lncRNAs can regulate gene expression and protein synthesis in several ways by interacting with DNA, RNA and proteins in a sequence specific manner. They could regulate cellular and developmental processes through either gene inhibition or gene activation. Many studies have shown that dysregulation of lncRNAs is related to many human diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, genetic disorders, neurological diseases, immune mediated disorders and cancers. However, the study of lncRNAs is challenging as they are poorly conserved between species, their expression levels aren’t as high as that of mRNAs and have great interpatient variations. The study of lncRNAs expression in cancers have been a breakthrough as it unveils potential biomarkers and drug targets for cancer therapy and helps understand the mechanism of pathogenesis. This review discusses many long non-coding RNAs and their contribution in HCC, their role in development, metastasis, and prognosis of HCC and how to regulate and target these lncRNAs as a therapeutic tool in HCC treatment in the future.

Keywords: Tumor suppressor genes, Oncogenes, Long non-coding RNAs, Proliferation, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Metastasis

Core tip: Recent researches are focusing on targeting non-coding RNAs in an attempt to find therapeutic means for many health problems. Here, we are shedding the lights on the regulation of several proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). lncRNAs try desperately to halt the aberrantly expressed oncogenic network by the fact that single lncRNA can have multiple downstream targets in one or more signaling pathway. This is an approach in an attempt to find an efficient radical cure for HCC.