Liver cancer remains a major health burden worldwide despite significant advancements of its therapeutic strategies (Samant et al., 2021). Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most prevalent type of liver cancer, represents nearly 80 % of the total cases with a very poor prognosis (Choo et al., 2016; Ferlay et al., 2021; O'Rourke et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2019). HCC typically develops as a consequence of prolonged chronic hepatitis and progressive cirrhosis of liver. Chronic hepatitis caused by hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses (HBV and HCV), along with metabolic dysfunction or alcohol induced steatotic liver disease are common causes of underlying chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis which ultimately culminates into HCC (Chavda et al., 2023; El-Serag, 2012; Liu & Wu, 2010; Llovet et al., 2023; Testino et al., 2014).

Patients diagnosed with early stage of HCC may receive curative treatments such as resection, local ablation, and transplantation. But, HCC often manifests insidiously with few or no symptoms until it reaches advanced stages, limiting treatment options and worsening prognosis. At late stages, systemic therapies with multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitors like Sorafenib and Lenvatinib or application of immunotherapies like Atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1) with Bevacizumab (anti-VEGF) are options for reducing tumor growth. However, resistance or refractoriness to these agents limit the overall or progression free survival of HCC patients to only a few months (Feng et al., 2022; Finn et al., 2020; Tabori & Sivananthan, 2020). Moreover, their application is also restricted by the adverse side effects (Sinner et al., 2022). Therefore, the effectiveness of current therapies remains limited emphasizing the urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies for patients with unresectable HCC.

The recent appreciation of the role of deregulated RNA in human physiology and disease pathogenesis has opened new avenues for cancer therapy (Ratti et al., 2020). Among these, the role of ncRNAs is particularly emphasized. These transcripts are evolutionary conserved and play a key role in regulating cellular and biological processes. The functions of transfer RNA (tRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in translation, small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) in active spliceosome formation and post-transcriptional modification of rRNA, tRNA and snRNA by small nucleolar RNAs (SnoRNAs) are well understood (Didychuk et al., 2018; Huang et al., 2022; Qu & Adelson, 2012). On the other hand, microRNA (miRNA), long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), and circular RNA (circRNA) have been thoroughly evaluated for their regulatory functions and potential use in diagnosis or treatment (Ma et al., 2023) (Fig. 1).