Pathology, genetic alterations, and targets of differentially expressed microRNAs in pancreatic cancer

Abstract: Since their discovery in mammals in 2001, the field of microRNA (miRNA) research has grown exponentially. miRNAs regulate protein translation following binding to conserved sequences within the 3' untranslated region of messenger RNAs. miRNAs are found to regulate nearly all biological processes, and their expression has been shown to differentially regulate a large number of diseases including cancer. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) was one of the initial groups of cancers to demonstrate differential miRNA expression. Since then, there have been numerous studies linking differential miRNA expression to PDAC. Translational extrapolation of these studies has been done linking diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic applications, and multiple review articles and book chapters have been written on these subjects. The intent here is to provide an overview of pancreatic cancer and review the current state of the validated and published findings on the messenger RNA targets of differentially expressed miRNAs in PDAC. We then attempt to summarize these findings to extrapolate them in the hopes of better understanding how altered miRNA expression in PDAC may alter the phenotype of this disease. Keywords: microRNA, pancreatic cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, target