The Role of non-coding RNAs in colorectal cancer, with a focus on its autophagy

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of malignant afflictions burdening people worldwide, mainly caused by shortages of effective medical intervention and poorly mechanistic understanding of the pathogenesis of CRC. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are a type of heterogeneous transcripts without the capability of coding protein, but have the po-tency of regulating protein-coding gene expression. Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved catabolic process in which cytoplasmic contents are delivered to cellular lysosomes for degradation, resulting in the turnover of cellular components and producing energy for cell functions. A growing body of evidence reveals that ncRNAs, autophagy, and the crosstalks of ncRNAs and autophagy play intricate roles in the initiation, progression, metas-tasis, recurrence and therapeutic resistance of CRC, which confer ncRNAs and autophagy to serve as clinical bio-markers and therapeutic targets for CRC. In this review, we sought to delineate the complicated roles of ncRNAs, mainly including miRNAs, lncRNAs and circRNAs, in the pathogenesis of CRC, particularly focus on the regulatory role of ncRNAs in CRC-related autophagy, attempting to shed light on the complex pathological mechanisms, in-volving ncRNAs and autophagy, responsible for CRC tumorigenesis and development, so as to underpin the ncRNAs-and autophagy-based therapeutic strategies for CRC in clinical setting. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Colorectal cancer is a malignant affliction commonly caused by lack of effective medical intervention and poor understanding of its pathogenesis, with non-coding RNAs and autophagy playing intricate roles in its initiation, progression, metastasis, recurrence, and therapeutic resistance. The interactions between ncRNAs and autophagy can serve as valuable clinical biomarkers and therapeutic targets for CRC.