简介:MicroRNAs(miRNAs)areasetofnon-codingsmallRNAmoleculesthatplayacriticalroleinregulationofproteincodinggenesincells.MiRNAshavebeenextensivelystudiedasnovelbiomarkers,therapeutictargets,andnewdrugsinvarioushumandiseases.Breastcancerisaoneoftheleadingtumortypessignificantlyaffectingwomenhealthworldwide.Overthepastdecade,anumberofnaturalagents,suchaspaclitaxelandcurcumin,havebeenappliedfortreatmentandpreventionofbreastcancerduetotheirrelativelylowtoxicity.However,themechanismsofactionhavenotbeencompletelyunderstood.InvestigationonmiRNAsisabletopotentiallyprovideanovelinsightintobetterunderstandingtheanticanceractivitiesofthesenaturalproducts.GiventhatasinglemiRNAcantargetmultiplegenes,theoretically,thosegenesinvolvedinacertainphenotypecanbeclusteredwithoneorafewmiRNAs.Therefore,pleiotropicactivitiesofnaturalagentsshouldbeinterpretedbyinteractionsbetweenselectedmiRNAsandtheirtargets.Inthisreview,wesummarizethelatestpublicationsrelatedtothealterationsofmiRNAsbytwonaturalagents(paclitaxelandcurcumin)thatarecurrentlyusedininterventionofbreastcancer,andconcludethatthemechanisminvolvingtheregulationofmiRNAexpressionisoneofthekeystounderstandpleiotropicactivitiesofnaturalagents.