Genome-wide analysis of small RNA and novel MicroRNA discovery in human acute lymphoblastic leukemia based on extensive sequencing approach.
BACKGROUND
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been proved to play an important role in various cellular processes and function as tumor suppressors or oncogenes in cancers including leukemia. The identification of a large number of novel miRNAs and other small regulatory RNAs will provide valuable insights into the roles they play in tumorgenesis.


RESULTS
To gain further understanding of the role of miRNAs relevant to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), we employed the sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) strategy to sequence small RNA libraries prepared from ALL patients and normal donors. In total we identified 159 novel miRNAs and 116 novel miRNA*s from both libraries. Among the 159 novel miRNAs, 42 were identified with high stringency in our data set. Furthermore, we demonstrated the different expression patterns of 20 newly identified and several known miRNAs between ALL patients and normal donors, suggesting these miRNAs may be associated with ALL and could constitute an ALL-specific miRNA signature. Interestingly, GO "biological process" classifications revealed that a set of significantly abnormally expressed miRNAs are associated with disease relapse, which implies that these dysregulated miRNAs might promote the progression of ALL by regulating genes involved in the pathway of the disease development.


CONCLUSIONS
The study presents a comprehensive picture of the expression of small RNAs in human acute lymphoblastic leukemia and highlights novel and known miRNAs differentially expressed between ALL patients and normal donors. To our knowledge, this is the first study to look at genome-wide known and novel miRNA expression patterns in in human acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Our data revealed that these deregulated miRNAs may be associated with ALL or the onset of relapse.
Zhang
Hua
H
Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory for Biocontrol, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Yang
Jian-Hua
JH
Zheng
Yu-Sheng
YS
Zhang
Peng
P
Chen
Xiao
X
Wu
Jun
J
Xu
Ling
L
Luo
Xue-Qun
XQ
Ke
Zhi-Yong
ZY
Zhou
Hui
H
Qu
Liang-Hu
LH
Chen
Yue-Qin
YQ
D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000378:metabolism; D019295:Computational Biology; D015973:Gene Expression Regulation, Leukemic; D015723:Gene Library; D016678:Genome; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics*; D012008:Recurrence; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D035683:MicroRNAs; D012313:RNA