Hematological malignancies: role of miRNAs and their in silico aspects

Hematological malignancies is a broad term that includes blood cell cancers including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), Myelodysplastic syndrome, acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), multiple myelomas (MM) and lymphomas. miRNAs are ~22-nt long non-coding RNAs that play a very important role in gene regulation by binding to mRNA at their complementary sequence. These miRNAs are conceptually connected with various signal and pathway networks that make them capable of regulating various diseases including hematological malignancies. These miRNAs are not only playing regulatory roles in hematological malignancies, but are also providing new potent markers for efficient diagnosis and prognosis for hematological malignancies patients. Since the discovery of very first miRNA, the importance and role of miRNAs have been established in various fields, and there is a need to search for new potent miRNAs and their targets. A large amount of sequence data have been generated in last few years, which has further generated the need to develop efficient and reliable computational tools to analyze and extract out relevant information promptly from raw data. Here, we review various possible roles played by miRNA in hematological malignancies, principles involved in miRNA gene identification, target prediction and their preceding role in hematological malignancies research.