Clinical significance of microRNAs in chronic and acute human leukemia

Small non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs) are epigenetic regulators that target specific cellular mRNA to modulate gene expression patterns and cellular signaling pathways. miRNAs are involved in a wide range of biological processes and are frequently deregulated in human cancers. Numerous miRNAs promote tumorigenesis and cancer progression by enhancing tumor growth, angiogenesis, invasion and immune evasion, while others have tumor suppressive effects (Hayes, et al., Trends Mol Med 20(8): 460–9, 2014; Stahlhut and Slack, Genome Med 5 (12): 111, 2013). The expression profile of cancer miRNAs can be used to predict patient prognosis and clinical response to treatment (Bouchie, Nat Biotechnol 31(7): 577, 2013). The majority of miRNAs are intracellular localized, however circulating miRNAs have been detected in various body fluids and represent new biomarkers of solid and hematologic cancers (Fabris and Calin, Mol Oncol 10(3):503–8, 2016; Allegra, et al., Int J Oncol 41(6): 1897–912, 2012). This review describes the clinical relevance of miRNAs, lncRNAs and snoRNAs in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment response in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute adult T-cell leukemia (ATL).