Long non-coding RNAs in anti-cancer drug resistance

// Qin-nan Chen 1 , Chen-chen Wei 1 , Zhao-xia Wang 1 and Ming Sun 2 1 Department of Oncology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China 2 Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America Correspondence to: Zhao-Xia Wang, email: // Ming Sun, email: // Keywords : long non-coding RNAs, cancer, drug resistance, chemotherapy, targets Received : May 29, 2016 Accepted : September 16, 2016 Published : October 04, 2016 Abstract Chemotherapy is one of the basic treatments for cancers; however, drug resistance is mainly responsible for the failure of clinical treatment. The mechanism of drug resistance is complicated because of interaction among various factors including drug efflux, DNA damage repair, apoptosis and targets mutation. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been a focus of research in the field of bioscience, and the latest studies have revealed that lncRNAs play essential roles in drug resistance in breast cancer, gastric cancer and lung cancer, et al. Dysregulation of multiple targets and pathways by lncRNAs results in the occurrence of chemoresistance. In this review, we will discuss the mechanisms underlying lncRNA-mediated resistance to chemotherapy and the therapeutic potential of lncRNAs in future cancer treatment.