Figure 2. The regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs in colorectal cancer.

LncRNAs regulate the proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, invasion and metastasis of CRC in a variety of ways. A. LncRNAs induce chromatin modification, DNA methylation and histone acetylation and contribute to the epigenetic silencing or activation of target genes; B. LncRNAs regulate gene expression by binding to miRNAs and consequently preventing specific miRNAs from binding to their target mRNAs, thus regulating the expression of target mRNAs; C. LncRNAs act as pseudogenes or miRNA precursors; D. LncRNAs can serve as structural components or modulate protein activity or alter protein localization by binding to proteins.