The imbalanced regulation of metabolic homeostasis and energy production is highly associated with inflammation, tumor growth, metastasis and cancer progression. Both glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation maintain metabolic homeostasis and energy production in cells. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of non-protein-coding transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides. Furthermore, lncRNAs can function as either tumor suppressors or oncogenes in cancer. Dysregulated lncRNAs reportedly regulate cancer hallmarks such as tumor growth, metabolism and metastasis. Accordingly, uncovering the interaction between lncRNAs and cellular metabolism has become a necessity when attempting to identify effective therapeutic and preventive strategies in cancer progression. This review summarizes important knowledge of the actions of known lncRNAs-mediated cancer metabolism.
Keywords: cancer; glycolysis; lncRNA; mitochondria; therapeutic target.