Journal of Ovarian Research

unofficial impact factor 2.10

Open Access Highly Access Review

Emerging role of microRNAs in diagnosis and treatment of various diseases including ovarian cancer

Parag P Shah, Lauren E Hutchinson and Sham S Kakar*

Author Affiliations

Department of Physiology and Biophysics, James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville, Louisville. KY 40202, USA

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Journal of Ovarian Research 2009, 2:11 doi:10.1186/1757-2215-2-11

Published: 27 August 2009

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a class of small non-coding RNAs that control gene expression by targeting messenger RNA (mRNA). Recently, it has been demonstrated that miRNA expression is altered in many human diseases including cancers, suggesting that miRNA may play a potential role in the pathogenesis of different diseases. It has also been reported that there is a unique expression pattern of miRNAs in the disease state differing from the normal state. In this review, we focus on the miRNA signatures in different human diseases including cancers. Such signatures may be used as diagnostic and prognostic markers.