An in silico integrative analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma omics databases shows the dual regulatory role of microRNAs either as tumor suppressors or as oncomirs

Abstract

MicroRNAs are well known as short RNAs bases, 22 nucleotides, binding directly to 3untranslated region (3UTR) of the messenger RNA to repress their functions. Recently, microRNAs have been widely used as a therapeutic approach for various types of Cancer. MicroRNA is categorized into tumor suppressor and oncomirs. Tumor suppressor microRNAs can repress the pathologically causative oncogenes of the hallmarks of Cancer. However, based on the fact that miRNA has no proper fidelity to bind specific mRNAs due to binding to off-targets, it results in a kind of inverse biological activity. Here, we have executed an in-silico integrative analysis of GEO/TCGA-LIHC of genes/microRNAs expression analysis in HCC, including (446 HCC vs. 146 normal specimens for miRNAs expression) ad 488 specimens for genes expression. It virtually shows that microRNAs could have an ability to target both oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes that contribute to its dual activity role as a tumor suppressor and oncomirs via miRNA-lncRNA-TFs-PPI Crosstalk. Seven resultant microRNAs show a putative dual role in HCC. It enhances our concluded suggestion of using combination therapy of tumor suppressor genes activators with microRNAs.