• Maria Ines Almeida, Rui Manuel Reis, and George Adrian Calin.
• The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
• Expert Opin Biol Ther. 2012 Sep 1; 12 (9): 1153-9.

IntroductionmicroRNAs (miRNAs), small noncoding RNAs, are deregulated in several diseases including cancer. miRNAs regulate gene expression at a posttranscriptional level by binding to 5'UTR, coding regions or 3'UTR of messenger RNAs (mRNA), inhibiting mRNA translation or causing mRNA degradation. The same miRNA can have multiple mRNA targets, and the same mRNA can be regulated by various miRNAs.Areas CoveredRecently, seminal contributions by several groups have implicated miRNAs as components of an RNA-RNA language that involves cross-talk between competing endogenous RNAs through a decoy mechanism. We review the studies that described miRNAs as players in a biological decoy activity. miRNAs can either be trapped by competing endogenous RNAs or interact with proteins that have binding sites for mRNAs.Expert OpinionThe miRNA decoy functions have implications for the design of therapeutic approaches in human diseases, including specific ways to overcome resistance to drug therapy and future miRNA-based clinical trials design.

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