Figure 1.

Downstream and upstream signaling involved in miR-202’s suppressor functions. A simplified scheme of the complex circuitry around miR-202 in normal and in cancer cells. In a normal cell (left detail), the lncRNAs like MALAT1 and NORAD and oncogenes display low expression levels, allowing higher levels of miR-202, which prevents an increased expression of tumor promoting genes, such as KRAS, FOXR2, and MTDH, and allows miR-202 to act on other downstream target molecules. miR-202 is also important for normal activation and phosphorylation events in the AKT pathway. In the cancer cell (right detail), the lncRNAs MALAT1 and NORAD as well as oncogenes reduce miR-202 expression leading to miR-202’s degradation and upregulation of cancer-promoting pathways as well as downregulation of apoptosis, which fuels tumor progression.