fig1

Figure 1. MiRNA regulation of autophagy during cancer invasion. The key components of macroautophagy is shown in this diagram. In the invading pro-metastatic cancer cell, autophagy is upregulated by gain of oncomiRs and loss of tumor-suppressive miRNAs. The oncomiRs target the inhibitors of autophagy to increase autophagic flux. The downregulated miRNAs on the other hand, are required for the activation of autophagy. Upregulated pro-EMT miRNAs are depicted as large red icons, while downregulated pro-MET miRNAs are depicted as small blue icons. The miRNA targets and mechanisms of actions are summarized in Table 1. EMT: epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition; oncomiRs: oncogenic miRNAs; MET: mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition