MicroRNA signatures characterize diffuse large B-cell lymphomas and follicular lymphomas

MicroRNAs (miRNA, miR) are negative regulators of gene expression that play an important role in diverse biological processes such as development, cell growth, apoptosis and haematopoiesis, suggesting their association with cancer. Here we analysed the expression signatures of 157 miRNAs in 58 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), 46 follicular lymphoma (FL) and seven non-neoplastic lymph nodes (LN). Comparison of the possible combinations of DLBCL-, FL- and LN resulted in specific DLBCL- and FL-signatures, which include miRNAs with previously published function in haematopoiesis (MIRN150 and MIRN155) or tumour development (MIRN210, MIRN10A, MIRN17-5P and MIRN145). As compared to LN, some miRNAs are differentially regulated in both lymphoma types (MIRN155, MIRN210, MIRN106A, MIRN149 and MIRN139). Conversely, some miRNAs show lymphoma-specific aberrant expression, such as MIRN9/9*, MIRN301, MIRN338 and MIRN213 in FL and MIRN150, MIRN17-5P, MIRN145, MIRN328 and others in DLBCL. A classification tree was computed using four miRNAs (MIRN330, MIRN17-5P, MIRN106a and MIRN210) to correctly identify 98% of all 111 cases that were analysed in this study. Finally, eight miRNAs were found to correlate with event-free and overall survival in DLBCL including known tumour suppressors (MIRN21, MIRN127 and MIRN34a) and oncogenes (MIRN195 and MIRNLET7G).