The Diagnostic and Therapeutic Role of snoRNA and lincRNA in Bladder Cancer

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Bladder cancer is one of the most common urological malignancies. Despite the continuous improvement of diagnosis and treatment in recent years, the high recurrence rate and poor prognosis of bladder cancer often led to poor quality of life. In the past few years, emerging evidence has demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs play a crucial role in the carcinogenesis and progression of bladder cancer. Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) and long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) are both subclasses of lncRNAs, and their dysregulation has been proven to be closely related to tumour growth and metastasis. In this review, we focus on the recently published literature on snoRNAs and lincRNAs in bladder cancer and summarize the important role of snoRNA and lincRNA in the carcinogenesis and development of bladder cancer. Our work contributes to a better understanding of the specific mechanism of the role of snoRNA and lincRNA in bladder cancer and reveals their potential as diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. ABSTRACT: Bladder cancer is one of the most common malignancies of the urinary tract and can be divided into non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). Although the means of diagnosis and treatment have continually improved in recent years, the recurrence rate of bladder cancer remains high, and patients with MIBC typically have an unfavourable prognosis and a low quality of life. Emerging evidence demonstrates that long noncoding RNAs play a crucial role in the carcinogenesis and progression of bladder cancer. Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) are a subgroup of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) that do not overlap protein-coding genes. The potential role of lincRNAs in the regulation of gene expression has been explored in depth in recent years. Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are a class of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) that mainly exist in the nucleolus, are approximately 60–300 nucleotides in length, and are hosted inside the introns of genes. Small nucleolar RNA host genes (SNHGs) have been associated with the origin and development of bladder cancer. In this review, we aim to comprehensively summarize the biological functions of these molecules in bladder cancer.