Regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition through microRNAs: clinical and biological significance of microRNAs in breast cancer

Breast cancer is a malignant disease to treat among female worldwide due to its high capability to metastasize and mutate. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition is one of the essential processes involved in the metastatic capacity of breast cancer. In the recent time, the studies demonstrate that microRNAs, a kind of small non-coding RNA molecules, could be served as negative regulators in breast cancer, regulating cell cycle, drug resistance, and the process of metastasis in cancer development. With the assistance of microRNA profiling, the study concentrating on the regulatory function of miRNAs in breast cancer could be investigated more effectively and efficiently. More recent studies demonstrate that miRNAs have an important role to play in the EMT process of breast cancer to modulate metastasis. This small essay is on the purpose of demonstrating the significance and detection of miRNAs in breast cancer EMT process as oncogenes and tumor suppress genes through miRNA profiling according to the reports mainly in the recent 5 years, providing the evidence of efficient target therapy and effective pro-diagnosis focusing on miRNAs expression of breast cancer patients.