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Non-coding RNAs and Novel Therapeutic Targets in Human Cancers and Ageing-Related Diseases

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A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2023) | Viewed by 5188

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hung-Yu Lin

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Guest Editor

Research Assistant Center, Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan
Interests: lncRNA; miRNA; epigenetics; cancers; ageing-related diseases; RNA-targeting therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Pei-Yi Chu

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Guest Editor

Department of Post-Baccalaureate Medicine, College of Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
Interests: lncRNA; miRNA; epigenetics; cancers; ageing-related diseases; RNA-targeting therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) are generated from the largest part of the genome of which only 1–2% code for proteins. NcRNAs comprise different RNA species, which can be broadly categorized into short ncRNA such as microRNAs (miRNA), and long ncRNAs (lncRNAs), such as lincRNA, antisense RNAs, pseudogenes and circular RNAs (circRNAs). The ncRNAs exert a pathway-centric eﬀect on the regulation of cellular growth, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), senescence, immune response, metastasis and angiogenesis via myriad of mechanisms.

Recent technological advancements in RNA sequencing have shown that the alterations in ncRNAs represents critical biomarkers of human cancer and ageing-related diseases, underscoring their clinical value in diagnosis and prognosis. More recently, ncRNA-targeting therapies including antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs), ASO anti-microRNAs (antimiRs), miRNA mimics, miRNA sponges, therapeutic circular RNAs (circRNAs) and CRISPR–Cas9-based gene editing represents an attractive approach for the treatment of cancers, as well as ageing-related diseases.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute original research articles with reference to (but not limited to) the significance of ncRNAs in the development of diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutics, novel methodological approaches combining bioinformatic tools and experimental validations, and the deciphering of its molecular mechanisms underlying the disease scenarios; critical review manuscripts with a perspective vision setting the stage for future research are also especially welcome.

Dr. Hung-Yu Lin
Dr. Pei-Yi Chu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

cancers
ageing-related diseases
miRNA
lncRNA
epigenetics
diagnosis
prognosis
pharmacological therapy
RNA-targeting therapy

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3356 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Bioinformatics and Experimental Analyses Reveal Immune-Related LncRNA–mRNA Pair AC011483.1-CCR7 as a Biomarker and Therapeutic Target for Ischemic Cardiomyopathy

by Qiao Jin, Qian Gong, Xuan Le, Jin He and Lenan Zhuang

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(19), 11994; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms231911994 - 9 Oct 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1906

Abstract

Ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM), which increases along with aging, is the leading cause of heart failure. Currently, immune response is believed to be critical in ICM whereas the roles of immune-related lncRNAs remain vague. In this study, we aimed to systematically analyze immune-related lncRNAs in the aging-related disease ICM. Here, we downloaded publicly available RNA-seq data from ischemic cardiomyopathy patients and non-failing controls (GSE116250). Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to identify key ICM-related modules. The immune-related lncRNAs of key modules were screened by co-expression analysis of immune-related mRNAs. Then, a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network, including 5 lncRNAs and 13 mRNAs, was constructed using lncRNA–mRNA pairs which share regulatory miRNAs and have significant correlation. Among the lncRNA–mRNA pairs, one pair (AC011483.1-CCR7) was verified in another publicly available ICM dataset (GSE46224) and ischemic cell model. Further, the immune cell infiltration analysis of the GSE116250 dataset revealed that the proportions of monocytes and CD8⁺ T cells were negatively correlated with the expression of AC011483.1-CCR7, while plasma cells were positively correlated, indicating that AC011483.1-CCR7 may participate in the occurrence and development of ICM through immune cell infiltration. Together, our findings revealed that lncRNA–mRNA pair AC011483.1-CCR7 may be a novel biomarker and therapeutic target for ICM. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-coding RNAs and Novel Therapeutic Targets in Human Cancers and Ageing-Related Diseases)

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25 pages, 4617 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Eleven-microRNA Signature Related to Tumor-Associated Macrophages Predicts Prognosis of Breast Cancer

by Sharmilla Devi Jayasingam, Marimuthu Citartan, Anani Aila Mat Zin, Timofey S. Rozhdestvensky, Thean-Hock Tang and Ewe Seng Ch’ng

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(13), 6994; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23136994 - 23 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2481

Abstract

The dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been known to play important roles in tumor development and progression. However, the understanding of the involvement of miRNAs in regulating tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and how these TAM-related miRNAs (TRMs) modulate cancer progression is still in its infancy. This study aims to explore the prognostic value of TRMs in breast cancer via the construction of a novel TRM signature. Potential TRMs were identified from the literature, and their prognostic value was evaluated using 1063 cases in The Cancer Genome Atlas Breast Cancer database. The TRM signature was further validated in the external Gene Expression Omnibus GSE22220 dataset. Gene sets enrichment analyses were performed to gain insight into the biological functions of this TRM signature. An eleven-TRM signature consisting of mir-21, mir-24-2, mir-125a, mir-221, mir-22, mir-501, mir-365b, mir-660, mir-146a, let-7b and mir-31 was constructed. This signature significantly differentiated the high-risk group from the low-risk in terms of overall survival (OS)/ distant-relapse free survival (DRFS) (p value < 0.001). The prognostic value of the signature was further enhanced by incorporating other independent prognostic factors in a nomogram-based prediction model, yielding the highest AUC of 0.79 (95% CI: 0.72–0.86) at 5-year OS. Enrichment analyses confirmed that the differentially expressed genes were mainly involved in immune-related pathways such as adaptive immune response, humoral immune response and Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation. This eleven-TRM signature has great potential as a prognostic factor for breast cancer patients besides unravelling the dysregulated immune pathways in high-risk breast cancer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-coding RNAs and Novel Therapeutic Targets in Human Cancers and Ageing-Related Diseases)

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