MicroRNA cause of Cancer?

Abstract

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world today.  While we may know more about the development and treatment of cancer than we did twenty years ago there are still many unanswered questions.  Questions such as what are the primary causes of cancer, where does it start and why?  Knowing the answers to these questions is important in learning what we can do to treat cancer or even to prevent cancer completely.  One finding that may be important to answer these questions is the presence of microRNA (miRNA), discovered in 1993. Over expression or reduced expression of miRNA has been found in many cancerous cells.  In this article we will examine miRNA in ovarian cancer.  It is important to point out that over expression and reduced expression can be applied to many types of cancers.  Currently scientists are trying to find ways to manipulate miRNA, adding miRNA or anti-RNA, in order to suppress and hopefully one day prevent cancer cells from forming.