MicroRNAs in Pancreatic Cancer: Involvement in Carcinogenesis and Potential Use for Diagnosis and Prognosis

Figure 1

Effect of miRNAs expression on the regulation of protooncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes. Some miRNAs act as negative regulators of protooncogenes expression and therefore their role is tumor-suppression (a). In cancerous tissue, reduced levels of these tumor-suppressive miRNAs lead to increased target oncogenes promoting further tumor development (b). Other miRNAs negatively regulate expression of tumor-suppressor genes; hence, their function is (proto) oncogenic (c). In tumor tissue their increased expression results in blockage of translation of tumor-suppressors further assisting the malignant process (d).