Abstract: As evolutionarily conservative small non- coding regulatory RNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) are capable of silencing gene expression by translational repression or mRNA degradation through complementary base pairing with the mRNA of target genes. Accumulating evidence indicates that deregulation of miRNAs is often associated with human malignancies because miRNAs can function as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Among them, miR- 205 is significantly underexpressed in breast tumors. Overexpression of miR-205 in breast cancer cells significantly inhibits cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis through repressing the expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (ERBB3), zinc finger E- box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1), zinc finger E- box binding homeobox 2 (ZEB2), vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and other target genes, which affects therapeutic sensitivity and prognosis of breast cancer patients. This article reviews the role and regulation of miR- 205 in breast cancer, the value of miR- 205 in clinical application and miR- 205 related research progress, which is expected to provide new strategy and therapeutic target for breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.

Key words: microRNAs, breast neoplasms, gene therapy, receptor, epidermal growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor A, zinc finger E - box with homologous box, miR-205