MicroRNA-185: A non-invasive diagnostic and prognostic tumor marker

Cancer is considered as one of the main causes of human deaths and a global health challenge. Despite the therapeutic and diagnostic progresses, there is a high rate of mortality among cancer patients. Late diagnosis is one of the most important reasons of high mortality rate, which is mainly due to the lack of efficient and noninvasive diagnostic methods to monitor cancer patients. Therefore, the introduction of non-invasive markers can play an effective role in the early diagnosis and better therapeutic management in these patients. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have critical functions in regulation of various physiological and pathophysiological cellular processes. Deregulation of miRNAs has been frequently reported in different tumor types. On the other hand, due to the high stability of these factors in body fluids, these factors can be used as the non-invasive tumor markers. In this study, for the first time, we discussed the role of miR-185 during tumor progression. It has been reported that miR-185 mainly functions as a tumor suppressor through the regulation of PI3K/AKT, JAK/STAT, TGF-& beta;, Hippo, and WNT signaling pathways as well as the transcription factors and cell cycle components. PI3K/AKT was reported as the main oncogenic signaling pathway that can be inhibited by miR-185 during tumor progression. Therefore, miR-185/PI3K/AKT axis can be suggested as a probable target in tumor therapy that requires further animal studies. The present review can be an effective step towards introducing the miR-185 as a non-invasive diagnostic marker and a therapeutic target in cancer patients.