RNA-Seq profiling of deregulated miRs in CLL and their impact on clinical outcome

Abnormal expression patterns of regulatory small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) molecules such as microRNAs (miRs), piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), and small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) play an important role in the development and progression of cancer. Identification of clinically relevant sncRNA signatures could, therefore, be of tremendous translational value. In the present study, genome-wide small RNA sequencing identified a unique pattern of differential regulation of eight miRs in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). Among these, three were up-regulated (miR-1295a, miR-155, miR-4524a) and five were down-regulated (miR-30a, miR-423, miR-486*, let-7e, and miR-744) in CLL. Altered expression of all these eight differentially expressed miRs (DEMs) was validated by RQ-PCR. Besides, seven novel sequences identified to have elevated expression levels in CLL turned out to be transfer RNA (tRNA)/piRNAs (piRNA-30799, piRNA-36225)/snoRNA (SNORD43) related. Multivariate analysis showed that miR-4524a (HR: 1.916, 95% CI: 1.080–3.4, p value: 0.026) and miR-744 (HR: 0.415, 95% CI: 0.224–0.769, p value: 0.005) were significantly associated with risk and time to first treatment. Further investigations could help establish the scope of integration of these DEM markers into risk stratification designs and prognostication approaches for CLL.