Research advances in the relationship between lncRNA HOTAIR and digestive system cancers

Abstract:

Long non-coding RNAs（lncRNAs） are defined as gene sequences with a length exceeding 200 nt. As transcripts of RNA polymerase Ⅱ， they are not translated into proteins due to the lack of an open reading frame in their gene segments. HOX transcript antisense（HOTAIR），one of the most popular lncRNAs in current research，which is widely involved in the regulation of gene expres－sion and protein modification，plays an important role in regulating the pathological and physiological processes in the body. HOTAIR is found to be upregulated in the digestive system tumor tissues to act as a bridging scaffold between PRC2 and LSD1 complexes，methylate specific histone genes，and induce silencing of coordinated ligand chromatin genes. HOTAIR，which regulates multiple sig－naling pathways to participate in the development and progression of tumor and to induce increased resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic agents，is an important cause of high relapse rate，poor prognosis，and short survival at progressive stage among patients diagnosed with digestive system cancers.