• The Function of LncRNA H19 in Ovarian Cancer: A Potential Biomarker for Early Diagnosis
  • Anahita Soleimani,1,* Saba Hadi,2
    1. department of medical genetics , faculty of medicine , Tabriz university of medical science , Tabriz Iran.
    2. department of medical genetics , faculty of medicine , Tabriz university of medical science , Tabriz Iran.


  • Introduction: Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal gynecologic cancer worldwide, The morbidity of OC is ranked the eighth among the most common women malignancies. Due to a lack of reliable biomarkers at the early stage, most ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at advanced stages (stage III or IV), with extensive peritoneal metastasis, making the 5-year survival rate as low as 30%. Hence for better management (prediction, progression, and response to treatment) of ovarian cancer, there is a need for new biomarkers. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of RNA with over 200 nucleotides with no protein-coding capacity. LncRNAs participate in many physiological and pathological processes, including apoptosis, cell proliferation, invasion, and carcinogenesis. Numerous reports of dysregulated lncRNA expression across different cancer types including ovarian cancer suggest that abnormal lncRNA expression may significantly contribute to tumorigenesis. The aberrant expression of lncRNAs in ovarian cancer could mark the spectrum of disease progression. LncRNAs often have tissue-specific patterns that differentiate them from miRNAs and protein-coding mRNAs, which are expressed in a variety of tissues. Some lncRNAs may be isolated non-invasively from blood and have high stability while circulating in body fluids. These characteristics make them suitable for cancer diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers especially when included in exosomes or apoptotic bodies.
  • Methods: For the literature review, we searched Scholar, Web of Sciences, PubMed/MEDLINE, and Scopus databases, and articles published until 2023 were included. The keywords and terms of the major concepts for this review were ovarian cancer, long non-coding RNA, ovarian cancer diagnosis and prognosis, ovarian cancer biomarkers, and H19, which were developed and combined to form the search strategy.
  • Results: LncRNA H19 (H19) was one of the first discovered lncRNAs and is encoded by the H19 gene. H19 is associated with malignancies detected in the early stages. Studies have shown that H19 plays an important role in the proliferation, invasion, and migration of OC. H19 could act as an oncogene in ovarian cancer cells, and via sponging miR-675. A study on the chemoresistant A2780 cell line revealed that H19-derived miR-675 participates in the progression of ovarian cancer by up-regulating of transcription factor slug which results in the down-regulation of the E-cadherin as an epithelial marker. In a study conducted by Medrzycki et al., H19 was an oncogene that is synergistic with histone H1.3 inhibiting the proliferation of OC cells. Yan et al. showed that Let-7 was a tumor suppressor, and the overexpression of H19 reduced the bioavailability of Let-7, contributing to the occurrence and development of cancer to a certain extent. Sajadpoor et al. found that valproic acid could reduce the expression of H19 in OC tissues, thus inhibiting cell proliferation. Therefore, H19 may play a key role in the early diagnosis of OC and may be a novel therapeutic target.
  • Conclusion: In this narrative review, we shed light on the molecular mechanism of H19 in OC development and pathogenesis. Moreover, we discussed the expression pattern and importance of H19 as a potential biomarker in early OC diagnosis.
  • Keywords: RNA, Long Noncoding; Ovarian Neoplasms; H19 long non-coding RNA; Biomarkers