Klin Onkol 2018; 31(6): 403-408. DOI: 10.14735/amko2018403.
Background: Cervical cancer as a common urogenital cancer among women has caused significant health problems. Efforts have been made to identify its pathogenic process in order to find targeted therapies. Long non-coding ribonucleic acids (lncRNAs) have been shown to regulate several cancer-related pathways and genes that contribute to pathogenesis of human malignancies, including cervical cancer. In the present review, we searched PubMed, Google scholar, Web of Science and Scopus databases for key words “cervical cancer” or “cervical neoplasm” and “long non-coding RNA” or “lncRNA” (up to December 2017). Aim: To elaborate the role of lncRNAs in cervical cancer. Conclusions: LncRNAs affect cervical cancer pathogenesis through numerous mechanisms, such as making scaffolds for assembly of protein complexes, serving as directors to recruit proteins, functioning as transcriptional enhancers through chromatin remodeling, serving as decoys to free up proteins from chromatin, or reversing the effects of other regulatory non-coding RNAs, such as microRNAs. Pathway-based analysis showed that several lncRNAs modulate PI3K/Akt/mTOR, Wnt-β catenin and Notch pathways in the process of cervical cancer pathogenesis. In addition, expression of a handful of lncRNAs has been associated with human papilloma virus infection. Identification of lncRNAs that alter cancer-related signaling pathways and subsequent expression analysis of these lncRNAs in patients’ samples would help to design effective targeted therapies.
