MicroRNA Regulation of Programmed Cell Death Pathways in Cancer

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are highly conserved, non-coding endogenous RNA and nearly ∼22 nucleotides (nt) in length, have been widely reported to play the crucial roles in a number of pathological processes, most notably cancer. Hitherto, accumulating evidence has demonstrated that miRNAs are involved in mediating several cancer-related pathways linked to Programmed cell death (PCD), indicating that miRNAs may function as the key regulators in apoptosis and autophagy of cancer. In this review, we present a brief outline of the discovery, biosynthetic pathway and regulatory mechanisms of miRNAs, and further elucidate how miRNAs can regulate apoptotic and autophagic pathways as oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes in cancer. Together, these inspiring findings would help cancer biologists and clinicians uncover the mysterious landscape of miRNAs, thereby ultimately harnessing the miRNA-targeted PCD pathways for future cancer therapeutics.