Regulatory mechanisms of long noncoding RNAs on gene expression in cancers

•Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a heterogeneous class of RNAs.•By acting as signal, guide, decoy or scaffold, lncRNAs are involved in several types of diseases including cancers.•LncRNAs regulate gene expression by histone methylation, genetic imprinting, chromatin remodeling, and so on.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a heterogeneous class of RNAs that are non-protein coding transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides. In this review, we introduce the mechanisms by which lncRNAs regulate gene expression in four parts, epigenetic regulation (genetic imprinting and chromatin remodeling), transcriptional regulation (molecular decoy), post-transcriptional regulation (splicing and mRNA decay), and translational regulation. H19, Xist, and others are involved in genomic imprinting. HOTAIR and ANRIL function in chromatin remodeling. GAS5 is degraded through an RNA decay pathway. NEAT1 and MALAT1 function not only in the regulation of transcription but also in splicing.