Figure 4.

Depiction of miR21 potential role in pancreatic cancer cell signaling: The miR21 plays a major role in the k-Ras signaling that has been upregulated in majority of cancers including the PDAC. The upregulated AP1 induces the transcription of pri-miR21 inside a nucleus where the DROSHA converts the pri-miR21 into pre-miR21 and Dicer makes it a mature functional miR21 following its translocation into the cytoplasm where the pancreatic cancer cells overexpress the miR21 levels. The higher expression of miR21 negatively regulates key signaling molecules and influences the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway genes, as well as the P53 network and TGF-β network. This results in the pancreatic cancer cells’ proliferation, preventing the PDAC cells from apoptosis, enhancing an angiogenesis, and promoting metastasis. The pathway is produced based on the references from [28,35-38].