Frontiers in Oncology (Apr 2021)

5-Fluorouracil: A Narrative Review on the Role of Regulatory Mechanisms in Driving Resistance to This Chemotherapeutic Agent

  • Soudeh Ghafouri-Fard,
  • Atefe Abak,
  • Farhad Tondro Anamag,
  • Hamed Shoorei,
  • Faranak Fattahi,
  • Faranak Fattahi,
  • Seyed Alireza Javadinia,
  • Abbas Basiri,
  • Mohammad Taheri

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2021.658636
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is among the mostly administrated chemotherapeutic agents for a wide variety of neoplasms. Non-coding RNAs have a central impact on the determination of the response of patients to 5-FU. These transcripts via modulation of cancer-related pathways, cell apoptosis, autophagy, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and other aspects of cell behavior can affect cell response to 5-FU. Modulation of expression levels of microRNAs or long non-coding RNAs may be a suitable approach to sensitize tumor cells to 5-FU treatment via modulating multiple biological signaling pathways such as Hippo/YAP, Wnt/β-catenin, Hedgehog, NF-kB, and Notch cascades. Moreover, there is an increasing interest in targeting these transcripts in various kinds of cancers that are treated by 5-FU. In the present article, we provide a review of the function of non-coding transcripts in the modulation of response of neoplastic cells to 5-FU.

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