Insights into the involvement of long non-coding RNAs in doxorubicin resistance of cancer

Hai-Bo Zhang; Yang Hu; Jun-Li Deng; Guo-Ying Fang; Ying Zeng

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1243934

Insights into the involvement of long non-coding RNAs in doxorubicin resistance of cancer

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Sep 15:14:1243934. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1243934. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hai-Bo Zhang¹, Yang Hu², Jun-Li Deng³, Guo-Ying Fang¹, Ying Zeng⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Hangzhou Women's Hospital (Hangzhou Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital), Hangzhou, China.
² Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease and China State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Department of Pharmacy, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Pharmacy, The Affiliated Changsha Central Hospital, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Changsha, China.

Abstract

Doxorubicin is one of the most classical chemotherapeutic drugs for the treatment of cancer. However, resistance to the cytotoxic effects of doxorubicin in tumor cells remains a major obstacle. Aberrant expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) has been associated with tumorigenesis and development via regulation of chromatin remodeling, transcription, and post-transcriptional processing. Emerging studies have also revealed that dysregulation of lncRNAs mediates the development of drug resistance through multiple molecules and pathways. In this review, we focus on the role and mechanism of lncRNAs in the progress of doxorubicin resistance in various cancers, which mainly include cellular drug transport, cell cycle disorder, anti-apoptosis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cancer stem cells, autophagy, tumor microenvironment, metabolic reprogramming and signaling pathways. This review is aimed to provide potential therapeutic targets for future cancer therapy, especially for the reversal of chemoresistance.

Keywords: cancer; doxorubicin; drug resistance; long non-coding RNA; molecular mechanisms.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82003870), Natural Science Foundation of Changsha (No. kq2014012), and the Key Research Project of Changsha Central Hospital (No. YNKY202204).