MicroRNA expression in Sezary syndrome: identification, function, and diagnostic potential

Blood. 2010 Aug 19;116(7):1105-13. doi: 10.1182/blood-2009-12-256719. Epub 2010 May 6.

Abstract

MicroRNAs are commonly aberrantly expressed in many cancers. Very little is known of their role in T-cell lymphoma, however. We therefore elucidated the complete miRNome of purified T cells from 21 patients diagnosed with Sézary Syndrome (SzS), a rare aggressive primary cutaneous T-cell (CD4(+)) lymphoma. Unsupervised cluster analysis of microarray data revealed that the microRNA expression profile was distinct from CD4(+) T-cell controls and B-cell lymphomas. The majority (104 of 114) of SzS-associated microRNAs (P < .05) were down-regulated and their expression pattern was largely consistent with previously reported genomic copy number abnormalities and were found to be highly enriched (P < .001) for aberrantly expressed target genes. Levels of miR-223 distinguished SzS samples (n = 32) from healthy controls (n = 19) and patients with mycosis fungoides (n = 11) in more than 90% of samples. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the down-regulation of intronically encoded miR-342 plays a role in the pathogenesis of SzS by inhibiting apoptosis, and describe a novel mechanism of regulation for this microRNA via binding of miR-199a* to its host gene. We also provide the first in vivo evidence for down-regulation of the miR-17-92 cluster in malignancy and demonstrate that ectopic miR-17-5p expression increases apoptosis and decreases cell proliferation in SzS cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Apoptosis
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics*
  • Blotting, Western
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Humans
  • Luciferases / metabolism
  • Lymphoma, B-Cell / blood
  • Lymphoma, B-Cell / diagnosis
  • Lymphoma, B-Cell / genetics
  • MicroRNAs / genetics
  • MicroRNAs / physiology*
  • Mycosis Fungoides / blood
  • Mycosis Fungoides / diagnosis
  • Mycosis Fungoides / genetics
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Prognosis
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Sezary Syndrome / blood
  • Sezary Syndrome / diagnosis
  • Sezary Syndrome / genetics*
  • T-Lymphocytes / metabolism

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • MIRN342 microRNA, human
  • MicroRNAs
  • RNA, Messenger
  • mirn199 microRNA, human
  • Luciferases