Dysregulation of ncRNAs located at the DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain: involvement in urological cancers

Abstract

Jiangfeng Li,* Haixiang Shen,* Haiyun Xie,* Yufan Ying, Ke Jin, Huaqing Yan, Song Wang, Mingjie Xu, Xiao Wang, Xin Xu, Liping Xie Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Genomic imprinting has been found to be involved in human physical development and several diseases. The DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain is located on human chromosome 14 and contains paternally expressed protein-coding genes (DLK1, RTL1, DIO3) and numerous maternally expressed ncRNA genes (MEG3, MEG8, antisense RTL1, miRNAs, piRNAs, and snoRNAs). Emerging evidence has implicated that dysregulation of the DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain especially the imprinted ncRNAs is critical for tumor progressions. Multiple miRNAs and lncRNAs have been investigated in urological cancers, of which several are transcribed from this domain. In this review, we present current data about the associated miRNAs, lncRNAs, and piRNAs and the regulation of differentially methylated regions methylation status in the progression of urological cancers and preliminarily propose certain concepts about the potential regulatory networks involved in DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain. Keywords: ncRNAs, DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain, epigenetics, regulatory network, urological cancers, DMRs, MEG3 

Keywords

• Non-coding RNAs
• DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain
• Urological cancers
• DMRs
• MEG3