Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
Volume 22, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijms22041603
Keywords
colorectal carcinoma; cancer stem cells; miRNAs; regulatory network; signaling pathways; feedback loop
Funding
- Fondazione Banco di Sardegna, Italy
- University of Sassari, Italy
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Colorectal cancer stem cells (CCSCs) with stemness behaviors play a crucial role in tumor progression and therapy resistance, associated with genetic changes in signaling pathways. Dysregulated CCSC-related miRNAs modulate stemness features and functions, involving cell cycle gene expression, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and drug-resistance mechanisms.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and about 20% is metastatic at diagnosis and untreatable. Increasing evidence suggests that the heterogeneous nature of CRC is related to colorectal cancer stem cells (CCSCs), a small cells population with stemness behaviors and responsible for tumor progression, recurrence, and therapy resistance. Growing knowledge of stem cells (SCs) biology has rapidly improved uncovering the molecular mechanisms and possible crosstalk/feedback loops between signaling pathways that directly influence intestinal homeostasis and tumorigenesis. The generation of CCSCs is probably connected to genetic changes in members of signaling pathways, which control self-renewal and pluripotency in SCs and then establish function and phenotype of CCSCs. Particularly, various deregulated CCSC-related miRNAs have been reported to modulate stemness features, controlling CCSCs functions such as regulation of cell cycle genes expression, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metastasization, and drug-resistance mechanisms. Primarily, CCSC-related miRNAs work by regulating mainly signal pathways known to be involved in CCSCs biology. This review intends to summarize the epigenetic findings linked to miRNAome in the maintenance and regulation of CCSCs, including their relationships with different signaling pathways, which should help to identify specific diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers for CRC, but also develop innovative CCSCs-targeted therapies.
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