@article {Dragomir748, author = {Mihnea Paul Dragomir and Scott Kopetz and Jaffer A Ajani and George Adrian Calin}, title = {Non-coding RNAs in GI cancers: from cancer hallmarks to clinical utility}, volume = {69}, number = {4}, pages = {748--763}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1136/gutjnl-2019-318279}, publisher = {BMJ Publishing Group}, abstract = {One of the most unexpected discoveries in molecular oncology, in the last decades, was the identification of a new layer of protein coding gene regulation by transcripts that do not codify for proteins, the non-coding RNAs. These represent a heterogeneous category of transcripts that interact with many types of genetic elements, including regulatory DNAs, coding and other non-coding transcripts and directly to proteins. The final outcome, in the malignant context, is the regulation of any of the cancer hallmarks. Non-coding RNAs represent the most abundant type of hormones that contribute significantly to cell-to cell communication, revealing a complex interplay between tumour cells, tumour microenvironment cells and immune cells. Consequently, profiling their abundance in bodily fluids became a mainstream of biomarker identification. Therapeutic targeting of non-coding RNAs represents a new option for clinicians that is currently under development. This review will present the biology and translational value of three of the most studied categories on non-coding RNAs, the microRNAs, the long non-coding RNAs and the circular RNAs. We will also focus on some aspirational concepts that can help in the development of clinical applications related to non-coding RNAs, including using pyknons to discover new non-coding RNAs, targeting human-specific transcripts which are expressed specifically in the tumour cell and using non-coding RNAs to increase the efficiency of immunotherapy.}, issn = {0017-5749}, URL = {https://gut.bmj.com/content/69/4/748}, eprint = {https://gut.bmj.com/content/69/4/748.full.pdf}, journal = {Gut} }