MYC-related microRNAs signatures in non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas and their relationships with core cellular pathways

In order to investigate the role of microRNAs in the pathogenesis of different B-cell lymhoma subtypes, we have applied an array-based assay to a series of 76 mixed non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas, including Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and follicular lymphoma. Lymphomas clustered according to histological subtypes, driven by two miRNA clusters (the miR-29 family and the miR-17-92 cluster). Since the two miRNA clusters are known to be MYC-regulated, we investigated whether this would be supported in MYC-driven experimental models, and found that this signature separated BL cell lines and a MYC-translocated MCL cell lines from normal germinal center B-cells and other B-cell populations. Similar results were also reproduced in tissue samples comparing BL and reactive lymph node samples. The same series was then quantitatively analyzed for MYC expression by immunohistochemistry and MYC protein levels were compared with corresponding miRNA signatures. A specific metric was developed to summarize the levels of MYC-related microRNAs and the corresponding protein levels. We found that MYC-related signatures are directly related to MYC protein expression across the whole spectrum of B-cells and B-cell lymphoma, suggesting that the MYC-responsive machinery shows predominantly quantitative, rather than qualitative, modifications in B-cell lymphoma. Novel MYC-related miRNAs were also discovered by this approach. Finally, network analysis found that in BL MYC-related differentially expressed miRNAs could control, either positively or negatively, a limited number of hub proteins, including BCL2, CDK6, MYB, ZEB1, CTNNB1, BAX and XBP1.