Farra R, Grassi M, Grassi G, Dapas B. Therapeutic potential of small interfering RNAs/micro interfering RNA in hepatocellular carcinoma. World J Gastroenterol 2015; 21(30): 8994-9001 [PMID: 26290628 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i30.8994]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Gabriele Grassi, MD, PhD, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Cattinara Hospital, Strada di Fiume 447, 34100 Trieste, Italy. ggrassi@units.it
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 14, 2015; 21(30): 8994-9001 Published online Aug 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i30.8994
Therapeutic potential of small interfering RNAs/micro interfering RNA in hepatocellular carcinoma
Rossella Farra, Mario Grassi, Gabriele Grassi, Barbara Dapas
Rossella Farra, Mario Grassi, Department of Industrial Engineering and Information Technology, University of Trieste, 34100 Trieste, Italy
Gabriele Grassi, Barbara Dapas, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34100 Trieste, Italy
Barbara Dapas, Department of ‘‘Scienze Mediche, Chirurgiche e della Salute’’, University of Trieste, Cattinara Hospital, 34100 Trieste, Italy
Author contributions: Dapas B took care about the entire manuscript organization and wrote section “Liver directed delivery systems for siRNAs/miRNAs”; Farra R wrote section “Molecular targets for HCC” and took care about the drawing of tables and figures; Grassi M wrote section “Obstacles to the use of miRNAs/siRNAs”; Grassi G wrote sections “Hepatocellular carcinoma” and “miRNAs/siRNAs”.
Supported by “Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio of Trieste”; the “Fondazione Benefica Kathleen Foreman Casali of Trieste”; the “Beneficentia Stiftung” of Vaduz Liechtenstein; and the Italian Minister of Instruction, University and Research (MIUR), PRIN 2010-11, No. 20109PLMH2 (in part).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Gabriele Grassi, MD, PhD, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Cattinara Hospital, Strada di Fiume 447, 34100 Trieste, Italy. ggrassi@units.it
Telephone: +39-40-3996227 Fax: +39-40-3994593
Received: February 27, 2015 Peer-review started: February 28, 2015 First decision: April 13, 2015 Revised: April 28, 2015 Accepted: July 3, 2015 Article in press: July 3, 2015 Published online: August 14, 2015 Processing time: 170 Days and 12.3 Hours
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the predominant form of primary liver cancer and represents the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Current available therapeutic approaches are poorly effective, especially for the advanced forms of the disease. In the last year, short double stranded RNA molecules termed small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and micro interfering RNAs (miRNA), emerged as interesting molecules with potential therapeutic value for HCC. The practical use of these molecules is however limited by the identification of optimal molecular targets and especially by the lack of effective and targeted HCC delivery systems. Here we focus our discussion on the most recent advances in the identification of siRNAs/miRNAs molecular targets and on the development of suitable siRNA/miRNAs delivery systems.
Core tip: Available therapeutic approaches for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are poorly effective, especially for the advanced forms of the disease. In the last year, short double stranded RNA molecules termed small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and micro interfering RNAs (miRNA), emerged as interesting molecules with potential therapeutic value for HCC. The practical use of these molecules is however limited by the identification of optimal molecular targets and especially by the lack of effective and targeted HCC delivery systems. Here we focus our discussion on the most recent advances in the identification of siRNAs/miRNAs molecular targets and on the development of suitable siRNA/miRNAs delivery systems.
