Long non-coding RNAs as the critical regulators of epithelial mesenchymal transition in colorectal tumor cells: an overview

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer mortality and a major health challenge worldwide. Despite advances in therapeutic and diagnostic methods, there is still a poor prognosis in CRC patients. Tumor recurrence and metastasis are the main causes of high mortality rate in these patients, which are due to late diagnosis in advanced tumor stages. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is known to be the most important cause of CRC metastasis, during which tumor cells obtain metastasis ability by losing epithelial features and gaining mesenchymal features. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are pivotal regulators of EMT process. Regarding the higher stability of lncRNAs compared with coding RNAs in body fluids, they can be used as non-invasive diagnostic markers for EMT process. In the present review, we summarized all of the lncRNAs involved in regulation of EMT process during CRC progression and metastasis. It was observed that lncRNAs mainly induced the EMT process in CRC cells by regulation of EMT-related transcription factors, Poly comb repressive complex (PRC), and also signaling pathways such as WNT, NOTCH, MAPK, and Hippo.