The NF-κB family of transcription factors regulate the expression of genes encoding proteins and microRNAs (miRNA, miR) precursors that may either positively or negatively regulate a variety of biological processes such as cell cycle progression, cell survival, and cell differentiation. The NF-κB-miRNA transcriptional regulatory network has been implicated in the regulation of proinflammatory, immune, and stress-like responses. Gene regulation by miRNAs has emerged as an additional epigenetic mechanism at the post-transcriptional level. The expression of miRNAs can be regulated by specific transcription factors (TFs), including the NF-κB TF family, and vice versa. The interplay between TFs and miRNAs creates positive or negative feedback loops and also regulatory networks, which can control cell fate. In the current review, we discuss the impact of NF-κB-miRNA interplay and feedback loops and networks impacting on inflammation in cancer. We provide several paradigms of specific NF-κB-miRNA networks that can regulate inflammation linked to cancer. For example, the NF-κB-miR-146 and NF-κB-miR-155 networks fine-tune the activity, intensity, and duration of inflammation, while the NF-κB-miR-21 and NF-κB-miR-181b-1 amplifying loops link inflammation to cancer; and p53- or NF-κB-regulated miRNAs interconnect these pathways and may shift the balance to cancer development or tumor suppression. The availability of genomic data may be useful to verify and find novel interactions, and provide a catalogue of 162 miRNAs targeting and 40 miRNAs possibly regulated by NF-κB. We propose that studying active TF-miRNA transcriptional regulatory networks such as NF-κB-miRNA networks in specific cancer types can contribute to our further understanding of the regulatory interplay between inflammation and cancer, and also perhaps lead to the development of pharmacologically novel therapeutic approaches to combat cancer.
Keywords: NF-κB; cancer; inflammation; miRNAs; oncogenic and tumor suppressor pathways; transcriptional regulatory networks.