miRNA–mRNA crosstalk in esophageal cancer: From diagnosis to therapy

• Here in, for the first time we have made an attempt to identify connection between different miRNAs involved in esophageal cancer and their mRNA targets involved in key biological processes like cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and metastasis. Also we have summarized differentially expressed microRNAs in esophageal cancer and a detailed analysis has been done to screen out micoRNAs involved in prognosis and multidrug resistance. miRNA–mRNA interaction pathway drawn here in for the first time is of great significance.

The asymptomatic nature of esophageal cancer (EC) at early stages results in late clinical presentation leading to poor prognosis and limited success of therapeutic modalities. Efforts to identify diagnostic/prognostic markers have proven to be unsuccessful for translation into clinics. Hence, there is a pressing need for establishment of novel non-invasive biomarker for early diagnosis/better prognosis of EC. Recently, alteration in microRNA (miRNA) expression has emerged as an important hallmark of cancer. This review summarizes the differential expression of miRNAs in EC and addresses how their aberrant expression influences crucial biological processes such as apoptosis, cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis. Additionally, this review highlights the current status of circulating miRNA based diagnostic/prognostic markers. An effort has been made to find a connection between different miRNAs involved in EC and a detailed analysis has been done to screen out micoRNAs involved in prognosis and multidrug resistance. Further, investigation of these miRNAs would not only provide a gene therapy based strategy to prevent/treat cancer but also to reverse multidrug resistance leading to decreased requirement of harmful chemotherapeutic drugs.