Are microRNAs oncogenes?( cell death called apoptosis which ten...)

While the major focus of cancer research has been on genes that code for proteins, said Hammond, "now we have to at the very least also consider non-coding genes for miRNAs, when we think about the kinds of genetic alterations that can contribute to tumors." Such considerations, he said, will likely influence methods of classifying and diagnosing cancers, as well as treating them.

Major questions remain about the mechanisms by which miRNAs affect cancers and their prevalence in cancer, said Hannon. "This is by no means a final answer about the role of miRNAs in cancer," he said. "But it's the first really definitive link where we can show with biological experiments that microRNAs can act as an oncogene."

Hannon said that -- given the apparently central role miRNAs play in causing cancers -- he supports the proposal by Frank Slack of Yale that such miRNAs be called "oncogenic micro RNAs," or "oncomiRs," and that mir-17-92 be designated oncomiR-1.

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Contact: Jim Keeley
keeleyj@hhmi.org
301-215-8858
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
8-Jun-2005