The Role of Long Noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in Esophageal Cancer Therapy Resistance and Metastasis

Zong-Ping Weng; Shen-Kai Hsu; Hui-Min David Wang; Kuo-Jen Chen; Po-Yen Lee; Chien-Chih Chiu; Kai-Chun Cheng

doi:10.3390/biomedicines12030660

The Role of Long Noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in Esophageal Cancer Therapy Resistance and Metastasis

Biomedicines. 2024 Mar 15;12(3):660. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12030660.

Authors

Zong-Ping Weng¹, Shen-Kai Hsu², Hui-Min David Wang³, Kuo-Jen Chen⁴, Po-Yen Lee^{1

5}, Chien-Chih Chiu², Kai-Chun Cheng^{1

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
² Department of Biotechnology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
³ Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, Kaohsiung 812, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.

Abstract

Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the most aggressive gastrointestinal cancers. Despite improvements in therapies, the survival rate of patients with EC remains low. Metastasis accounts for up to 90% of cancer-related deaths, and resistance to anti-neoplastic therapeutics is also a main cause of poor survival. Thus, metastasis and drug resistance are undoubtedly the two main challenges in cancer treatment. Among the different categories of noncoding RNAs, lncRNAs have historically drawn less attention. However, lncRNAs have gradually become a research hotspot, and increasing research has demonstrated that lncRNAs participate in the tumorigenesis of multiple types of cancer, including EC. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are RNA transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides in length that play important roles in epigenetics, transcription regulation, and posttranscriptional processing. In this review, we elucidated the role of lncRNAs in the metastasis and drug resistance of EC and discussed their potential clinical applications and related limitations. With a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of lncRNAs, we can identify therapeutic targets for EC in the future.

Keywords: drug resistance; esophageal cancer (EC); long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs); metastasis.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This study was financially supported by grants KMHK-109-035 and H-110-004 from Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, Taiwan; grants KMUH111-1M38 and KMUH112-2R49 from Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Taiwan and grants NSTC 110-2314-B-037-112 and 112-2314-B-037-024 from the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan.