Functional roles of the lncRNA MALAT1 in glioma

Abstract

Gliomas are a group of brain cancers with various clinical and biological features, and they are mostly malignant. Progressions in therapy approaches, comprising radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery, have not been so considerable in the prognosis of glioma cases. Recently, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been found with putative regulatory roles in gene expression, epigenetic regulation, neurogenesis, cell cycle, and cellular transportation. The lncRNA Metastasis Associated Lung Adenocarcinoma Transcript 1 (MALAT1) is frequently reported to be associated with multiple disorders, such as various types of cancers. Upregulation of MALAT1 is detected in different tumours, including glioma, and functional analyses reveal it affects malignant features of cancer cells like proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis. MALAT1 impacts those features by modulating various epigenetic histones, hormones, growth factors, and transcription factors. Therefore, this lncRNA can be regarded as a potent therapeutic target for glioma. In this review, we summarized the functional roles of MALAT1 in glioma.