Regulation of Autophagy by MiRNAs and Their Emerging Roles in Tumorigenesis and Cancer Treatment

Abstract Autophagy is a conserved catabolic process for the degradation and recycling of cytosolic components or organelles through a lysosome-dependent pathway. Autophagy can be induced in response to multiple stress conditions, such as nutrient deprivation, hypoxia, energy depletion, etc. As a result, autophagy can regulate many biological processes, including cell survival, metabolism, differentiation, senescence, and cell death. MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) are small noncoding molecules that regulate gene expression by silencing mRNA targets. MiRNA dysregulation exhibits great regulatory potential during organismal development, hematopoiesis, immunity, cell proliferation and death, and autophagy. Recently, increasing studies have linked MiRNAs to autophagic regulation during cancer initiation and development. Although the relationship between MiRNAs and autophagy is quite complicated and has not been well elucidated, MiRNAs may underlie key aspects of autophagy and cancer biology. Increasing evidence shows that MiRNAs play important roles as both oncogenic MiRNAs and tumor suppressive MiRNAs in cancer initiation and development. Thus, understanding the novel relationship between MiRNAs and autophagy may allow us to develop promising cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets.