• Knockdown of Long Non-coding RNA NEAT1 Improves Drug Efficiency in Ovarian Cancer
  • Saba Hadi,1 Anahita Soleimani,2 Akbar Amirfiroozi,3 Mahmoud Shekari Khaniani,4,*
    1. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz university of Medical sciences, Tabriz, Iran
    2. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz university of Medical sciences, Tabriz, Iran
    3. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz university of Medical sciences, Tabriz, Iran
    4. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz university of Medical sciences, Tabriz, Iran


  • Introduction: Ovarian cancer is a malignancy of the female reproductive system and is the third most common cancer among all cancers in women. Due to the fact patients are diagnosed in advanced stages, it is the fifth cause of cancer death among women. Despite the emergence of different new and advanced therapeutic approaches, debulking surgery and chemotherapy are the most common treatments. In addition to other therapeutic challenges, drug resistance is still an obstacle in ovarian cancer treatment. Hence, it is required to investigate more in the field of target therapy and find new probable targets. long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a kind of non-coding RNAs of length exceeding 200 nucleotides. LncRNAs have a crucial modulatory role in various biological processes such as growth, differentiation, chromatin remodeling, etc., consistent with their broad-spectrum expression pattern, their acceptable balance in body fluids such as urine and plasma, and cell-specificity. Changes in their expression levels and numerous mechanisms are the reasons that lncRNAs cause cancer by undergoing them.
  • Methods: In this paper, we searched ISI Web of Science, PubMed, Scholar, Scopus, and Science Direct for literature reports on NEAT1 in OC, and articles published until 2023 were considered. The search terms used in the review include “ovarian cancer”, “long non-coding RNA”, and “NEAT1”.
  • Results: Nuclear Para speckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1), is an imperative structural component to the creation of paraspeckles, which regulates various gene expressions. In addition to the usual characteristics of lncRANAs, NEAT1 is involved in the advent of the corpus luteum, placenta, mammary glands, immune response, and multiple diseases, including cancers specifically ovarian cancer. The role of NEAT1 in ovarian cancer has been investigated by previous studies. Reported results indicate the high expression levels of NEAT1 in ovarian cancer patients and pinpoint the oncogenic feature of NEAT1 in this cancer. Meanwhile, resistance to drugs used in chemotherapy is a major problem associated with NEAT1. This unfortunate outcome occurs due to interactions between NEAT1 and various miRNAs, as well as proteins.
  • Conclusion: In this review we described the molecular mechanisms of NEAT1-involved drug resistance in OC, indicating a valuable target to overcome drug resistance and improve therapeutic outcomes in ovarian cancer patients.
  • Keywords: Ovarian cancer (OC); Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA); Drug resistance; NEAT1; target therapy