AUTHOR=Li Jie , Sun Juan , Liu Zhen , Zeng Ziyang , Ouyang Siwen , Zhang Zimu , Ma Mingwei , Kang Weiming 

TITLE=The Roles of Non-Coding RNAs in Radiotherapy of Gastrointestinal Carcinoma

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2022.862563

DOI=10.3389/fcell.2022.862563

ISSN=2296-634X

ABSTRACT=Radiotherapy (RT), or radiation therapy, has been widely used in clinical practice for the treatment of local advanced gastrointestinal carcinoma. RT causes DNA double-strand breaks leading to cell cytotoxicity and indirectly damages tumor cells by activating downstream genes. Non-coding RNA (including microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and circular RNAs) is a type of RNA that does not encode a protein. As the field of non-coding RNAs increasingly expands, new complex roles have gradually emerged for non-coding RNAs in RT. It has been shown that non-coding RNAs can act as radiosensitivity regulators in gastrointestinal carcinoma by affecting DNA damage repair, cell cycle arrest, irradiation-induced apoptosis, cell autophagy, stemness, EMT, and cell pyroptosis. Here, we review the complex roles of non-coding RNAs in RT and gastrointestinal carcinoma. We also discuss the potential clinical significance and predictive value of non-coding RNAs in response to RT for guiding the individualized treatment of patients. This review can serve as a guide for the application of non-coding RNAs as radiosensitivity enhancers, radioresistance inducers, and predictors of response in RT of gastrointestinal carcinoma.