The Biological Role and Translational Implications of the Long Non-Coding RNA GAS5 in Breast Cancer

Ilaria Grossi; Eleonora Marchina; Giuseppina De Petro; Alessandro Salvi

doi:10.3390/cancers15133318

The Biological Role and Translational Implications of the Long Non-Coding RNA GAS5 in Breast Cancer

Cancers (Basel). 2023 Jun 23;15(13):3318. doi: 10.3390/cancers15133318.

Authors

Ilaria Grossi¹, Eleonora Marchina¹, Giuseppina De Petro¹, Alessandro Salvi¹

Affiliation

¹ Division of Biology and Genetics, Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy.

Abstract

The lncRNA GAS5 plays a significant role in tumorigenicity and progression of breast cancer (BC). In this review, we first summarize the role of GAS5 in cell biology, focusing on its expression data in human normal tissues. We present data on GAS5 expression in human BC tissues, highlighting its downregulation in all major BC classes. The main findings regarding the molecular mechanisms underlying GAS5 dysregulation are discussed, including DNA hypermethylation of the CpG island located in the promoter region of the gene. We focused on the action of GAS5 as a miRNA sponge, which is able to sequester microRNAs and modulate the expression levels of their mRNA targets, particularly those involved in cell invasion, apoptosis, and drug response. In the second part, we highlight the translational implications of GAS5 in BC. We discuss the current knowledge on the role of GAS5 as candidate prognostic factor, a responsive molecular therapeutic target, and a circulating biomarker in liquid biopsies with clinical importance in BC. The findings position GAS5 as a promising druggable biomolecule and stimulate the development of strategies to restore its expression levels for novel therapeutic approaches that could benefit BC patients in the future.

Keywords: GAS5; breast cancer; lncRNAs; ncRNAs.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Lega Italiana Lotta ai Tumori (LILT) grant number 02/2023, Liberamente Association (Gambara, BS, Italy) grant number 03/2023, and the University of Brescia (local grants) grant numbers 60/2021 and 60/2022. The funding bodies played no role in the design of the study, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or the writing of the manuscript.