Title: The Clinical Utility of MicroRNA as a Prognostic Biomarker of Pancreatobiliary Cancers
Abstract: A microRNA (miRNA) is a small noncoding RNA molecule (containing about 22 nucleotides) found in plants, animals and some viruses that functions in RNA silencing and posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. The miRNA induces gene silencing by binding to the 3’-untranslated regions (3’-UTRs) of target mRNAs. This interaction prevents protein production by inhibition of protein translation and/or by mRNA degradation. Therefore, miRNAs have been reported to have important functions in the regulation of carcinogenesis and cancer progression as well as homeostasis. This explains why miRNAs are intensely studied as candidates for diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in cancers. The miRNAs are invariably found to be misexpressed in every type of cancer examined so far, and miRNA genes can act as both tumor-suppressor genes and oncogenes. There were many studies about miRNA in pancreatobiliary cancers. Ali et al. 1