Characterization of B- and T-lineage ALL by Integrated Analysis of microRNA and mRNA Expression Profiles

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is an heterogeneous disease comprising several subentities that differ for both immunophenotypic and molecular characteristics. Over the years, the biologic understanding of this neoplasm has largely increased. Gene expression profiling has recently allowed to identify specific signatures for the different ALL subsets and permitted identification of pathways deregulated by a given lesion. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs which play a pivotal role in several cellular functions. In this study, we investigated miRNA and gene expression profiles in a series of adult ALL cases by microarray analysis and combined them by bioinformatic analysis. Interestingly, those miRNAs which are differentially expressed between the ALL classes accounted for a large proportion of miRNA/mRNA expression pairs identified by the above analysis. Moreover, the analysis highlighted several putative miRNA targets involved in apoptosis and cell-cycle regulation. We used microarrays to profile miRNA and gene expression in adult patients with newly diagnosed ALL of different subtypes. 20 microRNA samples, and 19 mRNA samples