Fig. 2

Illustration of non-coding RNAs in the modulation of the TIME during tumor growth and progression. miRNAs play an important role in regulating TIME functions that control several oncogenic signaling, secretome, and ICP molecules. CircRNAs have been shown to play roles during tumor progression such as proliferation, growth, invasion, and metastasis. The tumor exosomes that also contain circRNAs help in the modulation of TIME function and promote the immunosuppressive TME during tumor growth. circ-0020397 and circ-0000977, inhibit T and NK cell activation in the TIME. In addition, circRNAs in the immune cells contribute to the development of the immunosuppressive TME. During tumor growth and metastasis, lncRNAs play critical role in immune escape in the TIME. In the TME, lncRNAs control various immune and cancer cell crosstalk signals that promote the activation of immunosuppressive cells such as MDSCs and TAMs. Moreover, lncRNAs such as Neat1 and RUNX3 block the cytotoxic activity of CD8 + T cells and NK cells, respectively