G. Calin
Genes, chromosomes & cancer, 2019
This is an exciting time for geneticists and clinician scientists! For the first time in the half century long era of genomics, the deep understanding of the structure and function of the human genome now translates into clinical trials. By an unprecedented combination of hypothesis-driven research and high-throughput technologies, there is an exponential increase in our knowledge on the functions of the noncoding parts of the genome, on the power of genome editing, and on how genomics can support checkpoint inhibitors in medical practice. If one queries the PubMed for only three combinations—“microRNAs or long ncRNAs,” “Cas9 or CRISPR,” and “PD-1 or PD-L1”—the results are astonishing: more than 110 000 entries will appear, 18 000 of which only for 2018. A rate of 60 papers a day! The main goal of this Special Issue of Genes, Chromosomes & Cancer, entitled “At the forefront of genomics: non-coding RNAs, non-coding DNAs and genome editing,” is to offer the readers a comprehensive view of what the new genomics looks like and how this knowledge can be applied in medicine for the improvement of patient survival. The topics that are covered include: Lucia Lorenzi, Pieter Mestdagh and colleagues discuss the challenges related to lncRNA expression profiling, highlight how cancer lncRNAs provide new opportunities for cancer diagnosis and treatment, and reflect on future developments in their review “Long non-coding RNA expression profiling in cancer: challenges and opportunities.” Yajuan Li, Chunru Lin and colleagues provide an overview of how lncRNAs are involved in cancer cell colonization in specific organ sites and discussed therapeutic strategies based on these insights in their review “Molecular mechanisms of long noncoding RNAs-mediated cancer metastasis.” Jean-Jacques Michaille, Esmerina Tili and colleagues propose that increasing miR-155 levels in immune cells might increase the efficiency of newly developed cancer immunotherapies, due to the ability of miR-155 to target transcripts encoding immune checkpoints in their review “miR-155 expression in anti-tumor immunity: the higher the better?” Evi Lianidou and Klaus Pantel summarize recent knowledge on circulating tumor cells and circulating tumor DNA and discuss future trends in the field in their review “Liquid biopsies.” Peter Cook and Andrea Ventura focus on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based cancer therapeutics and diagnostics, which are developing at an impressive speed and shortly could be assumed to impact clinical practice in their review “Cancer diagnosis and immunotherapy in the age of CRISPR.” Finally, Angelica Cortez, George Calin and colleagues discuss the latest findings on immune pathways regulated by miRNAs in cancer, on miRNA-mediated regulation of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment, and on miRNAs as potential targets for immunotherapies in their review “Role of miRNAs in immunotherapy and immune responses in cancer.” Combined, these reviews not only discuss novel, exciting and often unexpected discoveries; they are also organized in a way that should encourage the readers to come up with questions that can lead to further advances in the field. Is there a way to combine the noncodingRNA profiling or the genome editing of non-coding regions in order to find a better immune therapy? Could we use liquid biopsies for the detection of mutations in the noncodingDNAs? If so, how will these new diagnostic platforms perform compared to the more widely used platforms based on exomes or gene panels? How could these new technologies help the patients with metastatic disease? The road from the first genomic studies to the present tsunami of information was a long and bumpy one. One of the first “big datalike” achievements was to start collecting all chromosomal abnormalities in cancer in the early 1980s. This gave geneticists a global view of how complex cancer genomes can be. A foundation for further exploration of this complexity was provided by the sequencing of the human genome at the start of the millennium, a milestone in modern science. I truly hope that this Special Issue will stimulate scientists to continue exploring the translational applications of the genomics of cancer and other diseases. I am thankful to all readers for choosing to read these exciting reviews, in spite of all other obligations. I am also thankful to all the authors who found the time to write about these innovative concepts. This is, indeed, a very exciting time for human cancer genomics, and the future looks even better!
Cited by 1 publication.
Field of study: Biology