MicroRNAs in lymphoma

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small regulatory RNAs involved in post-Transcriptional gene regulation of molecular pathways related with differentiation, proliferation, and survival of cells. Normal lymphocytes are not an exception, and even relevant molecular pathways involved in the immunologic functions of these cells are also controlled by miRNAs. These important roles make miRNA alterations to be oncogenetic mechanisms with multiple targeting roles in lymphomagenesis. Among miRNA alterations, mutations in mature and pre-miRNA forms have been punctually described, but the most well-known miRNA alteration mechanisms are changes in their expression levels. The origin of these expression abnormalities seems to be diverse regarding the considered particular miRNA and lymphoma entity. Thus, some miRNAs have been described as targets of genomic instability affecting miRNA containing chromosomal loci. On the reverse side, other miRNA expression changes seem to involve epigenetic alterations or other molecular mechanisms not related with direct alterations of their loci. Regardless of their alteration mechanisms, miRNA expression profiles have been shown useful for improvement of clinical management of the patients, through their good performance in the diagnosis discrimination among types and subtypes of lymphomas. In addition to the biological features of these neoplasms, miRNA expression profiles have also proven to help in the identification of patient subsets with different prognosis outcomes. Taking together all these findings, we can foresee an increasing importance of the miRNA-based translational research in practical applications to the lymphoma clinical management and hopefully, even help in achieving more specific treatments. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.