Figure 6.

Role of miRNA in GBM tumorigenesis. MicroRNAs exert their effects by binding and interacting with their target mRNA, resulting in degradation or translational repression of the target protein. Due to their function, miRNAs effectively function as either oncogenic miRNA or tumor suppressive mRNA. miRNAs are oncogenic when their target proteins are tumor suppressors; conversely, miRNAs are tumor suppressive when their target proteins are oncogenic. The downregulation of tumor suppressor proteins and upregulation of oncogenic proteins can cause an increase in cancer stemness, promote cell proliferation, angiogenesis and invasion and inhibit apoptosis. Through these mechanisms, miRNAs play a key role in chemoresistance. Modified from Mizoguchi et al.^[197]. GBM: glioblastoma