Exosomes have emerged as a novel approach for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer after RNA content was discovered in exosomes in 2007. As important meditators of intercellular communication, exosomes have become a strong focus of investigation for researchers in the past decade, as witnessed through the exponential increase of research on exosomes. The capability of exosomes to transfer functionally active cargo highlights their importance as promising biomarkers and diagnostic molecules, as well as prospective drug delivery systems. The accessibility of exosomes in nearly all biofluids additionally alludes to its unprecedented ability in various types of cancers due to its extensive impact on tumor formation and progression. This review analyzes the role of exosomal long RNA species, which is comprised of mRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA, in tumor formation and progression, with an emphasis on their potential as future diagnostic biomarkers and treatment vectors in cancer biology. Their alignment with the development of exosomal databases is further examined in this review, in view of the accumulation of studies published on exosomes in the past decade.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the ability to differentiate into multiple cell types, including osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic lineages. Osteogenic differentiation of MSCs plays a critical role in bone tissue engineering. Inducing MSC osteogenesis represents a potential treatment that promotes bone formation and bone regeneration. Recently, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) was shown to participate in the occurrence and development of various diseases. Different lncRNA expression patterns can regulate the cell cycle, proliferation, metastasis, immunobiology and differentiation. With the recent extensive study of lncRNAs, an increasing number of lncRNAs are being studied in the MSC field. Furthermore, some lncRNAs have been confirmed to regulate MSC osteogenesis. Therefore, here, we review research concerning lncRNA in osteogenic differentiation of MSCs and highlight the importance of lncRNA in bone formation and bone regeneration.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) SNHG5 has been found to play an important role in tumors. Nevertheless, the function and mechanism of lncRNA SNHG5 in osteosarcoma (OS) remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether lncRNA SNHG5 can regulate the occurrence and development of OS cells. We performed quantitative real time PCR to detect the expression of lncRNA SNHG5 in OS cells. 143B, MG63 (knockdown) and U2OS, U2R (overexpression) cell lines were chosen for the function study of SNHG5. The effect of SNHG5, miR-212-3p, and SGK3 in OS cells was explored by MTT assays, clony formation, flow cytometry, transwell assays, wound healing assays, and cell spreading assays. Quantitative real-time PCR, Western blot analysis and luciferase assays were used to detect the interaction between lncRNA SNHG5 and miR-212-3p. In this study, knockdown of lncRNA SNHG5 suppressed the growth and metastasis of OS cells, whereas the overexpression of SNHG5 produced an opposite result. Mechanistically, lncRNA SNHG5 functions as a sponger against miR-212-3p and suppresses the miR-212-3p/SGK3 signaling pathway. Introduction of miR-212-3p mimics or inhibitors reverses SNHG5 overexpression or silences the exerted tumor promoting or suppressing effect. In addition, our results showed that the function of SNHG5 can be rescued by miR-212-3p and can regulate the growth and metastasis of OS cells via SGK3, the downstream target of miR-212-3p. In summary, our study demonstrated that lncRNA SNHG5 can regulate the proliferation and metastasis of OS cells through the miR-212-3p/SGK3 axis. This axis may provide a new target for future clinical treatment.