MicroRNA as biomarkers and regulators in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia

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162 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Early cancer detection and disease stratification or classification are critical to successful treatment. Accessible, reliable, and informative cancer biomarkers can be medically valuable and can provide some relevant insights into cancer biology. Recent studies have suggested improvements in detecting malignancies by the use of specific extracellular microRNAs (miRNAs) in plasma. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), an incurable hematologic disorder, sensitive, early, and noninvasive diagnosis and better disease classification would be very useful for more effective therapies. We show here that circulating miRNAs can be sensitive biomarkers for CLL, because certain extracellular miRNAs are present in CLL patient plasma at levels significantly different from healthy controls and from patients affected by other hematologic malignancies. The levels of several of these circulating miRNAs also displayed significant differences between zeta-associated protein 70 (ZAP-70)+ and ZAP-70- CLL. We also determined that the level of circulating miR-20a correlates reliably with diagnosis-totreatment time. Network analysis of our data, suggests a regulatory network associated with BCL2 and ZAP-70 expression in CLL. This hypothesis suggests the possibility of using the levels of specificmiRNAs in plasma to detect CLL and to determine the ZAP-70 status.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6573-6578
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume108
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Apr 2011

Keywords

  • Gene network
  • Hairy cell leukemia
  • Multiple myeloma
  • NR6A1

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