From: The epigenetic regulatory mechanism of PIWI/piRNAs in human cancers
Tumor type | PIWI/piRNA | Expression in tumors | Biological function | Regulatory mechanism | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cervical cancer | piRNA-14633 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Increasing CYP1B1 m6A level through up-regulating the expression of METTL14 | [84] |
DLBCL | piRNA-30472 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Increasing HK2 m6A level through up-regulating the expression of WTAP | [85] |
Breast cancer | pi-sno75 PIWIL4 | Down-regulated | Suppress tumorigenesis | Inducing H3K4 methylation and H3K27 demethylation of TRAIL by recruiting PIWIL4/MLL3 | [92] |
PIWIL2 PIWIL4 | Underexpression | Suppress tumorigenesis | Down-regulated expression of DNMT1, histone H1, HP1 and SUV39H1 | [94] | |
piR-651 PIWIL2 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Inducing methylation of PTEN promoter by recruiting PIWIL2/DNMT1 | [105] | |
piRNA-823 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Promoting the expression of DNMTs, such as DNMT1, DNMT3A and DNMT3B, and thus inducing the hypermethylation of APC | [108] | |
piR-021285 | Genetic variant | Suppress tumorigenesis | Promoting the methylation of proinvasive ARHGAP11A 5’UTR/first exon | [109] | |
 | piRNA-36712 PIWIL1 | Down-regulated | Suppress tumorigenesis | Combining with PIWIL1 to form RISC, which is targeted to degrade SEPW1P, subsequently reduces SEPW1 expression through competition of SEPW1 mRNA with SEPW1P RNA for microRNA-7 and microRNA-324 | [129] |
Leukemia | piR-011186 piR-014637 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Form complexes with DNMT1, Suv39H1 and EZH2 proteins that regulate the methylation level of the DNA and Histone H3 in the CDKN2B promoter site | [93] |
MM | piRNA-823 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Activating DNMT3B and upregulating DNA methylation level | [108] |
piRNA-823 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Up-regulating expression of DNMT3A and 3B, leading to the methylation of tumor suppressor gene p16(INK4A) | [113] | |
ESCC | piRNA-823 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | piR-823 may promote ESCC progression through DNMT3b-mediated DNA methylation | [107] |
Prostate cancer | piRNA-31470 PIWIL4 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Inducing methylation of GSTP1 CpG islands by recruiting PIWIL4/DNMT1 and 3α | [114] |
Lung cancer | PIWIL1 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Modulating GMIP DNA methylation | [117] |
piRNA-L-163 | Down-regulated | Suppress tumorigenesis | Binding directly to p-ERM and regulates ERM functional activities | [123] | |
piR-55490 | Down-regulated | Suppress tumorigenesis | Binding 3'UTR of mTOR mRNA and induce its degradation | [125] | |
Pancreatic cancer | PIWIL1 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | As a coactivator of APC/C complex rather than a substrate, targets cell adhesion protein Pinin for proteolytic ubiquitination | [70] |
Gastric cancer | PIWIL1 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Interaction with the UPF1-mediated nonsense-mediated mRNA decay mechanism | [7] |
Colon cancer | piR-823 | Up-regulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Enhancing the transcriptional activity of HSF1 | [69] |
piRNA-1245 | Upregulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Targeting 3’UTR, CDS or 5’UTR region of the tumor suppressor gene | ||
Neuroblastoma | piRNA-39980 | Upregulated | Promote tumorigenesis | Inhibiting the expression of JAK3 through target binding | [130] |
Bladder cancer | piRABC | Down-regulated | Suppress tumorigenesis | Up-regulating TNFSF4 | [131] |