MicroRNA（miRNA）是人类体内重要的转录后调控因子，参与细胞分化、增殖以及凋亡等多个细胞生物学过程。miRNA表达谱的变化与肿瘤的发生发展密切相关，miRNA既可以是癌基因，也可以是抑癌基因。肿瘤的主要生物学特征均涉及到miRNA表达水平的变化，尤其在肿瘤免疫逃逸中的变化十分复杂。循环miRNA是人类血液中一种表达极其稳定的miRNA，能够较准确地反映肿瘤的疾病状态，检测肿瘤患者体内异常的循环miRNA表达谱可能成为肿瘤临床诊断和预后判断的一种新手段。miRNA的检测手段主要包括Northern blotting、微阵列和qRT-PCR等传统方法，也包括二代测序等新兴技术。miRNA模拟物以及携带miRNA的脂质体等治疗方案已取得一定进展，但这些方法均有一定局限性使其无法在临床大规模开展应用。在克服当前的这些技术难点之后，miRNA检测有望进入临床，帮助建立新的肿瘤诊断和治疗方案。

MicoRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules of approximately 22 nucleotides in length, endogenously present in humans, animals, plants, and some viruses, which function as post-transcriptional regulators in numerous biological processes. MiRNAs can be either oncogenic or anti-oncogenic. Aberrant miRNA expression is the hallmarks of cancer and thus miRNA profiling may help monitor tumor growth and progression. Accumulating evidence suggest that circulating miRNAs, stably expressed in human peripheral blood, can accurately reflect the status of cancer, thus having great potential to serve as novel diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarkers for cancer. Conventionally, miRNA detection mainly involves Northern blotting, microarray, qRT-PCR, and lately next-generation sequencing. In recent years, significant improvement has been made in miRNA-based therapeutic strategies including miRNA mimicking and lipidosome-mediated miRNA delivery. However, some technological difficulties remain, which has restricted the wider application of these strategies in clinics. It is highly anticipated that miRNAs will play more significant roles in cancer diagnose and treatment in clinics when these difficulties are well managed.

国家自然科学基金项目（No. 81201607); 河北省杰出青年基金资助项目（No. H2014206320)