Tusup M, Kundig T, Pascolo S. Epitranscriptomics of cancer. World J Clin Oncol 2018; 9(3): 42-55 [PMID: 29900123 DOI: 10.5306/wjco.v9.i3.42]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Steve Pascolo, PhD, Senior Scientist, Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Zürich, Gloriastrasse 31, Zurich 8091, Switzerland. steve.pascolo@usz.ch
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Clin Oncol. Jun 10, 2018; 9(3): 42-55 Published online Jun 10, 2018. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v9.i3.42
Epitranscriptomics of cancer
Marina Tusup, Thomas Kundig, Steve Pascolo
Marina Tusup, Thomas Kundig, Steve Pascolo, Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Zürich, Zurich 8091, Switzerland
Marina Tusup, Thomas Kundig, Steve Pascolo, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich 8091, Switzerland
Author contributions: All three authors contributed to writing this review.
Supported by University of Zurich: “URPP: Translational Cancer research”; and the “MERIT” project supported by the FP7 European Union’s Research and Innovation Funding program.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
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: Steve Pascolo, PhD, Senior Scientist, Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Zürich, Gloriastrasse 31, Zurich 8091, Switzerland. steve.pascolo@usz.ch
Telephone: +41-44-6342877 Fax: +41-44 6342872
Received: February 7, 2018 Peer-review started: February 7, 2018 First decision: March 7, 2018 Revised: April 18, 2018 Accepted: May 23, 2018 Article in press: May 23, 2018 Published online: June 10, 2018
Abstract
The functional impact of modifications of cellular RNAs, including mRNAs, miRNAs and lncRNAs, is a field of intense study. The role of such modifications in cancer has started to be elucidated. Diverse and sometimes opposite effects of RNA modifications have been reported. Some RNA modifications promote, while others decrease the growth and invasiveness of cancer. The present manuscript reviews the current knowledge on the potential impacts of N6-Methyladenosine, Pseudouridine, Inosine, 2’O-methylation or methylcytidine in cancer’s RNA. It also highlights the remaining questions and provides hints on research avenues and potential therapeutic applications, whereby modulating dynamic RNA modifications may be a new method to treat cancer.
Core tip: The present manuscript reviews the current knowledge on RNA modifications in cancer. The potential impacts of N6-Methyladenosine, Pseudouridine, Inosine, 2’O-methylation or methylcytidine in cancer’s RNA is presented and discussed. The review also highlights the remaining questions and provides hints on research avenues and potential therapeutic applications, whereby modulating dynamic RNA modifications may be a new method to treat cancer.
