Competing endogenous RNA networks and gastric cancer

Recent studies have showed that RNAs regulate each other with micro RNA(mi RNA) response elements(MREs) and this mechanism is known as 'competing endogenous RNA(ce RNA)' hypothesis. Long noncoding RNAs(lnc RNAs) are supposed to play important roles in cancer. Compelling evidence suggests that lnc RNAs can interact with mi RNAs and regulate the expression of mi RNAs as ce RNAs. Several lnc RNAs such as H19, HOTAIR and MEG3 have been found to be associated with mi RNAs in gastric cancer(GC), generating regulatory crosstalk across the transcriptome. These MRE sharing elements implicated in the ce RNA networks(ce RNETs) are able to regulate m RNA expression. The ce RNA regulatory networks including m RNAs, mi RNAs, lnc RNAs and circular RNAs may play critical roles in tumorigenesis, and the perturbations of ce RNETs may contribute to the pathogenesis of GC.