Research progress on the role of miR-140 expression in the development of tumor

MicroRNAs are a class of small non-coding RNA molecules with about 22 nucleotides in eukaryotes, which, by inhibiting mRNA stability and/or its translation, regulate the genes expression at the post-transcriptional level. MicroRNAs have been reported to be dys-regulated in many tumors, and they can contribute to carcinogenesis and progression of tumors as either tumor supressors or promoters. miR-140 is down-regulated in many tumors such as breast cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, colon cancer and osteosarcoma, and plays a role in cancer cell proliferation, differentiation, invasion and metastasis by targeting mutiple genes. These findings suggest that miR-140 is a tumor suppressor. The research progress of miR-140 in common tumors has been reviewed in the present paper. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2018.06.14