FIGURE 1.

Mechanisms of lncRNA–miRNA interaction to affect mRNA expression. There are four main known mechanisms through which lncRNAs and miRNAs interact to alter gene expression. (A) LncRNAs can act as sponges for miRNAs. LncRNAs bind miRNAs preventing their interaction with their target mRNA, thus preventing silencing of this gene. (B) LncRNAs and miRNAs compete to bind the same target mRNA, thus, depending on the stimulus, gene expression can be differentially expressed. (C) miRNAs can be generated from lncRNAs through spicing of the lncRNA by endoribonucleases such as Dicer and Drosha. (D) MiRNAs silence lncRNA activity by targeting lncRNAs for degradation using the same mechanism through which they target mRNAs. Mi-RISC, miRNA-induced silencing complex.