Spotlight on the Expanding Role of DANCR in Tumorigenesis and Tumor Progression

Context: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is a novel set of non-coding RNAs (ncRNA), over 200 nucleotides in length, accounting for the regulation of genes and chromosome structure. There are a few articles, mostly focusing on changes in the expression profile of DANCR. However, this review tried to collect documents to discuss the molecular mechanisms of this lncRNA in different cellular signaling pathways, considering microRNAs, to obtain a better understanding of its mode of action. Evidence Acquisition: Differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA (DANCR) is a cancer-associated lncRNA whose dysregulation, mostly upregulation, has been reported in almost all cancers, particularly in stages of invasion, migration, and progression. The regulatory mechanism of DANCR is mostly working as competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs), leading to the hypothesis that lncRNA DANCR has oncogenic functions in malignancies. LncRNA DANCR harbors a number of MicroRNA Response Elements (MREs) for various microRNAs involved in different pathways, which are responsible for turning the situation toward supremacy for the dissemination of cancerous cells and ultimately metastasis, such as PI3K/Akt, TGF-β, Wnt, JAK-STAT, EMT, and DNA damages. In fact, lncRNA DANCR could potentially sequester microRNAs from their targeted mRNAs, which share the same MREs as DANCR. Conclusion: This review article provides proper evidence, of why the aberrant expression of DANCR pathophysiologically turns the circumstances toward supremacy for the progression, migration, and invasion of cancerous cells, and proposes this lncRNA as a potent and extremely promising prognostic marker for the early detection of tumor progression and metastasis, as well as a therapeutic target for controlling the progression of several human malignancies.