Digestive
cancer is one of the leading causes of
cancer mortality in the world. Despite a number of studies being conducted, the exact mechanism for treating digestive
cancer has not yet been fully understood. To survive, digestive
cancer cells are subjected to various internal and external adverse factors, such as
hypoxia,
nutritional deficiencies or
drug toxicity, resulting in accumulation of misfolded and unfolded
protein in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen further leading to ER stress and the unfolded protein response (UPR). During the last years, studies on the relationship between ER stress and
microRNAs (
miRNAs) has burst on the scene.
miRNAs are non-coding RNAs with a length of 21~22nucleotides involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, which could be regarded as oncomiRs (
tumor inducers) and
tumor suppressors regulating
cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and apoptosis by differently affecting the expression of genes related to
cancer cell signaling. Therefore, investigating the interaction between ER stress and
miRNAs is crucial for developing effective
cancer treatment and prevention strategies. In this review, we mainly discuss
miRNAs focusing on its regulation, role in ER stress induced apoptosis in Digestive
cancer, expound the underlying mechanism, thus provides a theoretical foundation for finding new therapeutic targets of digestive
cancer.