LncRNA HOTAIR polymorphisms association with cancer susceptibility in different tumor types.

Abstract Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in non coding RNAs (ncRNA) molecules affect gene and protein expression and generate genetic variability influencing the risk of tumor diseases. HOTAIR is locates at the heart of the cell memory gene program and represents a prototype of long non coding RNA (LncRNA) due to its capacity to regulate in-trans a distant chromosome landscape. Aberrant expression of HOTAIR is frequently associated with pathogenesis and mostly with metastatic progression of several human cancers. Different polymorphisms, particularly present in intronic sequences, as well as in promoter regions of HOTAIR, are often associated with its aberrant expression, patient prognosis, and cancer susceptibility in different tumor phenotypes. In this minireview we have summarized the main SNPs in HOTAIR sequence and their relation with cancer risk in several types of solid tumors.