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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Analysis of Combinatorial miRNA Treatments to Regulate Cell Cycle and Angiogenesis
Published on: March 30, 2019
Is miR-29 an oncogene or tumor suppressor in CLL?
1Human Cancer Genetics Program and Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics, OSU School of Medicine, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Pekarsky.Yuri@osumc.edu
None:
B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common leukemia in the Western world. CLL occurs in two forms, aggressive and indolent. Aggressive CLL is characterized by high ZAP-70 expression and unmutated IgH V(H); indolent CLL shows low ZAP-70 expression and mutated IgH V(H). We recently found that miR-29 is up-regulated in indolent human B-CLL, compared to aggressive B-CLL and normal CD19(+) B-cells. To determine the role of miR-29 in CLL, we generated transgenic mice over-expressing miR-29 in mouse B-cells. Recently we reported that miR-29 transgenic mice develop indolent CLL phenotype. Interestingly, our previous findings suggest that miR-29 targets expression of TCL1, a critical oncogene in aggressive CLL, indicating that miR-29 might function as a tumor suppressor in CLL. Here we discuss these results and provide additional insights into function of miR-29 in CLL.
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