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MicroRNA signatures characterize multiple myeloma patients

Leukemia volume 25, pages 1784–1789 (2011)Cite this article

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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding single-stranded RNAs of ∼22 nucleotides in length that regulate protein levels by binding to either partially or complete complementary sites in messenger RNAs (mRNAs), leading to translational repression or transcript degradation, respectively. MiRNAs have a role in critical biological processes including cellular growth and differentiation. Recent studies showed that miRNAs have an important role in the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma (MM) and that miRNA signatures are associated with different cytogenetic subtypes. Unsupervised analyses of miRNA expression in MM identified unique clusters, which were not associated with chromosomal abnormalities, while supervised analysis showed a specific miRNA expression pattern for MM subgroups.1, 2, 3

We have investigated the expression level of 365 miRNAs in sorted bone marrow (BM) plasma cells of 45 newly diagnosed MM patients enrolled in the HOVON-65/GMMG-HD4 trial (Supplementary Table S1) and 4 healthy individuals (Gene Expression Omnibus, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/, accession number GSE16558).1 We addressed the question whether MM patients could be classified based on miRNA expression patterns. MiRNA expression data were linked to gene expression data to gain more insight into candidate miRNA target genes. Finally, a possible association of miRNA expression with response to therapy, that is, complete response (CR), nearly CR (nCR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), was evaluated.

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Acknowledgements

We thank JF van Galen and MM Wattel from the Erasmus Medical Center for performing additional FISH analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    S L Corthals, S M Sun, R Kuiper, Y de Knegt, A Broyl, J K Peeters, M Jongen-Lavrencic & P Sonneveld

  2. Department of Trials & Statistics-HOVON Data Center, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    B van der Holt & L el Jarari

  3. Department of Clinical Genetics, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    H B Beverloo

  4. Department of Hematology, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    H M Lokhorst

  5. Department of Hematology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    S Zweegman

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  1. S L Corthals
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Correspondence to P Sonneveld.

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Competing interests

Professor Dr P Sonneveld has served on advisory boards of Johnson & Johnson and Millennium Pharmaceuticals.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Leukemia website

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Corthals, S., Sun, S., Kuiper, R. et al. MicroRNA signatures characterize multiple myeloma patients. Leukemia 25, 1784–1789 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2011.147

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