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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 21, 2016; 22(35): 7951-7962
Published online Sep 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i35.7951
Role of miRNAs and their potential to be useful as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in gastric cancer
Kelly Cristina da Silva Oliveira, Taíssa Maíra Thomaz Araújo, Camila Inagaki Albuquerque, Gabriela Alcantara Barata, Carolina Oliveira Gigek, Mariana Ferreira Leal, Fernanda Wisnieski, Fernando Augusto Rodrigues Mello Junior, André Salim Khayat, Paulo Pimentel de Assumpção, Rommel Mário Rodriguez Burbano, Marília Cardoso Smith, Danielle Queiroz Calcagno
Kelly Cristina da Silva Oliveira, Taíssa Maíra Thomaz Araújo, Camila Inagaki Albuquerque, Gabriela Alcantara Barata, Fernando Augusto Rodrigues Mello Junior, André Salim Khayat, Paulo Pimentel de Assumpção, Danielle Queiroz Calcagno, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Hospital Universitário João de Barros Barreto, Belém, PA 66073-000, Brazil
Carolina Oliveira Gigek, Mariana Ferreira Leal, Fernanda Wisnieski, Marília Cardoso Smith, Disciplina de Genética, Departamento de Morfologia e Genética, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo 04021-001, Brazil
Rommel Mário Rodriguez Burbano, Laboratório de Citogenética Humana, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA 66073-000, Brazil
Author contributions: da Silva Oliveira KC and Calcagno DQ performed the review design; da Silva Oliveira KC, Thomaz Araújo TM, Albuquerque CI and Calcagno DQ collected the data; Thomaz Araújo TM, Albuquerque CI, Barata GA, Rodrigues Mello Junior FA and Calcagno DQ wrote the paper; Gigek CO performed corrections and suggestions; de Assumpção PP, Rodriguez Burbano RM and Smith MC revised the paper critically; all the authors contributed to this manuscript.
Supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo; the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; and the Coordenação de Aperfeiçooamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
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: Danielle Queiroz Calcagno, PhD, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Hospital Universitário João de Barros Barreto, 2º Piso da UNACON, Av. Mundurucus, Belém, PA 66073-000, Brazil. danicalcagno@gmail.com
Telephone: +55-91-32016776
Received: March 12, 2016
Peer-review started: March 12, 2016
First decision: April 14, 2016
Revised: June 14, 2016
Accepted: August 1, 2016
Article in press: August 1, 2016
Published online: September 21, 2016
Abstract

Alterations in epigenetic control of gene expression play an important role in many diseases, including gastric cancer. Many studies have identified a large number of upregulated oncogenic miRNAs and downregulated tumour-suppressor miRNAs in this type of cancer. In this review, we provide an overview of the role of miRNAs, pointing to their potential to be useful as diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarkers in gastric cancer. Moreover, we discuss the influence of polymorphisms and epigenetic modifications on miRNA activity.

Keywords: Gastric cancer, Epigenetic, Diagnostic biomarkers, miRNAs, Prognostic biomarkers

Core tip: Accumulating evidence indicates that dysregulated miRNAs play important roles in gastric cancer pathogenesis. In this context, we provide an overview of the role of miRNAs, pointing to their potential to be used as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in gastric cancer. Moreover, we discuss the influence of polymorphisms and epigenetic modifications on miRNA activity.