A Role of MicroRNAs in Pathogenesis of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is an oncologic pathology that is found in 3 % of all cases of malignant tumors in adults and approximately in 90 % of malignant kidney lesions. Part of the MicroRNAs (miRNA, miR) in development of RCC is actively investigated. MiRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that regulate the expression of a broad gene spectrum by the means of impact on the 3′-untranslated regions (3′-UTR) of complementary mRNAs. MicroRNAs play the key part in such essential RCC development processes as cell growth and cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, replicative potential, angiogenesis, tissue invasion and metastasizing. The purpose of this literature review is to analyze up-to-date data on role of microRNAs in pathogenesis of RCC. Materials and methods. The systematic review of the available scientific literature using on-line scientific database PubMed and such keywords as ′′renal cell carcinoma′′, ′′pathogenesis′′, ′′microRNA′′, ′′miRNA′′ and ′′miR′′ has been performed. Results and discussion. As a result of the database search using specified keywords 485 scientific papers have been found. The most relevant results have been selected for the literature review. The mechanism of RCC pathogenesis is complicated and continues to be unclear. Large amount of investigations of miRNA in patients with RCC has been performed where the expression levels in tissues, blood, and urine have been measured and compared with those in healthy controls. A great number of explorations has showed that both overexpression and underexpression of miRNAs are characteristic for RCC. The mRNAs that seemed to play most important role in RCC pathogenesis are miR-1, miR-20b-5p, miR-22, miR-23b, miR-30c, miR-30d, miR-34a, miR-99a, miR-133a, miR-133b, miR-135a, miR-138, miR-143, miR-145, miR-182-5p, miR-199a-3p, miR-200c, miR-490-5p, miR-509-5p, miR-708, miR-1826 and have an impact on such mechanisms as cell cycle, migration, proliferation, invasion, modulation of the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. Conclusion: there is a strong evidence of the important role of miRs in pathogenesis of RCC, however, further investigations are required in order to achieve more profound understanding of genetic mechanisms of development of this pathology.