Metabolic Pathways in Breast Cancer Reprograming: An Insight to Non-Coding RNAs.

Cancer cells reprogram their metabolisms to achieve high energetic requirements and produce precursors that facilitate uncontrolled cell proliferation. Metabolic reprograming involves not only the dysregulation in glucose-metabolizing regulatory enzymes, but also the enzymes engaging in the lipid and amino acid metabolisms. Nevertheless, the underlying regulatory mechanisms of reprograming are not fully understood. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) as functional RNA molecules cannot translate into proteins, but they do play a regulatory role in gene expression. Moreover, ncRNAs have been demonstrated to be implicated in the metabolic modulations in breast cancer (BC) by regulating the metabolic-related enzymes. Here, we will focus on the regulatory involvement of ncRNAs ( microRNA, circular RNA and long ncRNA ) in BC metabolism, including glucose, lipid and glutamine metabolism. Investigation of this aspect may not only alter the approaches of BC diagnosis and prognosis, but may also open a new avenue in using ncRNA-based therapeutics for BC treatment by targeting different metabolic pathways.