Page 108 - Read Online

Vidoni et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2021;7:4 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2020.95 Metastasis and Treatment

Review Open Access

Epigenetic control of autophagy in women’s tumors:
role of non-coding RNAs

Chiara Vidoni , Letizia Vallino , Alessandra Ferraresi , Eleonora Secomandi , Amreen Salwa , Menaka
1
1,#
1,#
1
1
Chinthakindi , Alessandra Galetto , Danny N Dhanasekaran , Ciro Isidoro 1
3
1
2
1 Laboratory of Molecular Pathology, Department of Health Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale “A. Avogadro”, Novara
28100, Italy.
2 Unit of Medical Oncology, Department of Experimental and Translational Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara
28100, Italy.
3 Stephenson Cancer Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA.
# Authors contributed equally.
Correspondence to: Dr. Ciro Isidoro, Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Università del Piemonte Orientale “A. Avogadro”, Via
P. Solaroli 17, Novara 28100, Italy. E-mail: ciro.isidoro@med.uniupo.it
How to cite this article: Vidoni C, Vallino L, Ferraresi A, Secomandi E, Salwa A, Chinthakindi M, Galetto A, Dhanasekaran DN,
Isidoro C. Epigenetic control of autophagy in women’s tumors: role of non-coding RNAs. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2021;7:4.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2020.95
Received: 2 Sep 2020 First Decision: 19 Nov 2020 Revised: 2 Dec 2020 Accepted: 24 Dec 2020 Published: 7 Jan 2021
Academic Editor: Lucio Miele, William P. Schiemann Copy Editor: Miao Zhang Production Editor: Jing Yu

Abstract
Cancer remains the second leading cause of death worldwide and a major public health and economic issue. To
reduce the burden, new approaches are necessary to diagnose the disease at early stages and improve clinical
outcomes of cancer patients, for which understanding the molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis is crucial.
Autophagy is a pro-survival pathway that ensures the removal and renewal of cellular macromolecular structures,
thus playing a crucial role in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Dysregulation of autophagy can favor
chemoresistance and survival of dormant cancer cells, thus favoring cancer progression and relapse. Several studies
report dysregulated expression of long non-coding RNAs and micro-RNAs acting as tumor suppressors or tumor
promoters by targeting genes involved in the autophagy pathway. Here, we focus on the role played by non-coding
RNAs-mediated regulation of autophagy in development and progression of cancers in women. Understanding how
epigenetics can impact autophagy might open novel therapeutic strategies in the fight against cancers in women.

Keywords: Autophagy, cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, micro-RNAs, long non-coding RNA, cell metabolism,
autophagy-related genes

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

www.jcmtjournal.com