Recent advancement in RNA technology and computation biology shows the abundance and impact of RNA editing at the genome-wide level. Of RNA editing events, Adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing is one of the most frequent types of RNA editing catalyzed by ADAR proteins. Indeed, A-to-I RNA editing occurs at the various coding and noncoding regions, triggering abnormal signaling pathways involved in cancer pathogenesis. Noncoding RNAs such as microRNA and long noncoding RNA have emerged as key regulators of pathways in cancer. The RNA editing including A-to-I editing is enriched in noncoding regions because of the abundance of noncoding RNAs accounting for 99% of total transcripts in the human genome. The effects of A-to-I editing in coding genes have been investigated and reported. However, those in noncoding RNAs have been less known in spite of the high frequency of editing events in noncoding regions. In this review, we will briefly discuss current findings and potential directions of A-to-I RNA editing research of noncoding RNAs and cancer. We will also introduce the concept of A-to-I editing, ADAR proteins, RNA editing technologies and databases.

RNA技术和计算生物学的最新进展显示了在全基因组水平上RNA编辑的丰富性和影响。在RNA编辑事件中，腺苷至肌苷（A至I）RNA编辑是ADAR蛋白质催化的最常见的RNA编辑类型之一。确实，从A到I的RNA编辑发生在各种编码和非编码区域，触发了与癌症发病机理有关的异常信号通路。非编码RNA（例如microRNA和长非编码RNA）已成为癌症通路的关键调节因子。由于大量非编码RNA占人类基因组总转录本的99％，因此包括A-to-I编辑在内的RNA编辑在非编码区域富集。已经研究和报道了编码基因中从A到I编辑的效果。然而，尽管非编码区中编辑事件的发生频率很高，但非编码RNA中的那些还是鲜为人知。在这篇综述中，我们将简要讨论非编码RNA和癌症的A-to-I RNA编辑研究的当前发现和潜在方向。我们还将介绍A-to-I编辑，ADAR蛋白，RNA编辑技术和数据库的概念。