The Role of RNAs in Cancers: Recent Advances
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Oncology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2025 | Viewed by 4135
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
RNAs play a fundamental and indispensable role in normal cellular physiology and represent an important evolutionary tool for a wide range of adaptive strategies at the genetic and epigenetic levels, with a huge impact on the pathogenesis of diseases, including carcinogenesis. The recent application of next-generation sequencing has allowed for a more precise insight into cancer transcriptomes and proteomes, revealing classical and novel forms of alterations in protein-coding RNAs (such as mRNAs and tRNAs residues) and thousands of aberrantly expressed non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) associated with various diseases, including cancer. Since the seminal study of Calin and Croce that linked miRNAs to leukaemia, numerous ncRNA subtypes have been identified, such as miRNAs, circRNAs, siRNAs, piRNAs, ncRNAs, snoRNAs, and lncRNAs, and they have been implicated in virtually all aspects of genetic and epigenetic genome regulation. They are also suggested to be involved in various stages of carcinogenesis by acting as either tumour promoters or tumour suppressors in post-transcriptional gene regulation, cell proliferation, metastasis, angiogenesis, cell stemness and drug response.
This Special Issue of IJMS was conceived by the journal’s Editorial Board as a broad overview designed to provide a year-long review of the roles of coding and non-coding RNAs in tumour pathogenesis with emphasis on practical aspects of RNAs as markers in cancer diagnostics and their emerging role in cancer therapy. In particular, but not exclusively, the expected reviews should shed light on the current state of scientific knowledge in the following areas:
- Alterations in mRNAs transcription and processing in tumours—the roles of tRNAs, rRNAs, etc.
- Cross-talk between coding and non-coding RNAs in cancers;
- From cancer-related transcriptomes to proteomes and their correlations;
- Established roles of ncRNAs in cancer pathogenesis;
- Oncogenic and tumour-suppressing potential of lncRNAs;
- MicroRNAs as tumour promotors and suppressors in various cancers;
- Modifying role of circRNAs, piRNAs, snRNAs, snoRNAs, and siRNAs in human cancers;
- RNAs in diagnostics and cancer therapy.
Prof. Dr. Roman Beňačka
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- cancer cells
- carcinogenesis
- mRNAs
- ncRNAs
- lncRNAs
- miRNAs
- circRNAs
- piRNAs
- RNA-based diagnostics
- RNA-based therapy
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