[01] Mohammad Rakibul Alam, Department of Molecular Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea. [02] Mohammad Rubayet Ahsan, Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh. [03] Rezowan Kabir, Biomedical Engineering Department, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), Mirpur Cantonment, Dhaka, Bangladesh. [04] Sourav Biswas Nayan, Department of Food Engineering, North Pacific International University of Bangladesh, Manikganj, Bangladesh. [05] Mahbub E. Sobhani, Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh.

The role of RNA in the central dogma of life has been changed after the discovery of evolutionary conserved, single stranded petite RNA molecule named microRNA (miRNA). miRNA is an essential regulator of gene expression that controls both physiological and pathological process in the progression of cancer. In order to reveal the role of miRNA, we have studied major signalling pathways including: IGF1R, AKT, MAPK, and WNT pathways. miRNA has significant role in activating these pathways as well as down-regulating apoptotic proteins i.e. PTEN, FOXO, p 53, p 21, p 27, puma, Bim, GSK3β, AXIN, APC, CK1α, RUNX3, SOX, NLK and up-regulating oncogenic proteins i.e. Ras, VEGF, ctnnB. During chronic psychological stress, body elevates the production of glucocorticoids (GCs) via hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis which ultimately facilitates tumorigenesis through regulation of signal transduction pathways. Binding with Glucocorticoid receptor, GCs activates the oncogenic transcription factor c-Myc that binds directly to the E-box sequence of Drosha promoter to produce mature miRNA and eventually leads cellular proliferation and cancer development. This paper reviews chronic psychological stress induced GCs secretion, and propose molecular mechanism of GCs regulated mature miRNA production and miRNA mediated regulation of cellular signal transduction pathways during cancer.

Chronic Psychological Stress, Glucocorticoid, miRNA Biogenesis, IGF1R/AKT/MAPK/WNT Signalling Pathways

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