MicroRNA-92a as a marker of treatment response and survival in adult acute myeloid leukemia patients

Micro-RNA: A Future Approach to Personalized Diagnosis of Bone Diseases

Osteoporosis is a highly prevalent bone disease worldwide and the most studied bone-associated pathological condition. Although its diagnosis makes use of advanced and clinically relevant imaging and biochemical tools, the information suffers from several limitations and has little or no prognostic value. In this context, circulating micro-RNAs represent a potentially attractive alternative or a useful addition to the diagnostic arsenal and offer a greater prognostic potential than the conventional approaches. These short non-coding RNA molecules act as inhibitors of gene expression by targeting messenger RNAs with different degrees of complementarity, establishing a complex multilevel network, the basis for the fine modulation of gene expression that finally regulates every single activity of a cell. Micro-RNAs may passively and/or actively be released in the circulation by source cells, and being measurable in biological fluids, their concentrations may be associated to specific pathophysiological conditions. Mounting, despite debatable, evidence supports the use of micro-RNAs as markers of bone cell metabolic activity and bone diseases. Indeed, several micro-RNAs have been associated with bone mineral density, fractures and osteoporosis. However, concerns such as absence of comparability between studies and, the lack of standardization and harmonization of the methods, limit their application. In this review, we describe the pathophysiological bases of the association between micro-RNAs and the deregulation of bone cells activity and the processes that led to the identification of potential micro-RNA-based markers associated with metabolic bone diseases.

MicroRNA-9 restrains the sharp increase and boost apoptosis of human acute myeloid leukemia cells by adjusting the Hippo/YAP signaling pathway

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a very important role in the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This study focuses on the effects of miR-9 on the regulation of AML cells and their related signaling pathways. We found that the expression of miR-9 was significantly decreased in four AML cell lines (THP-1, HL-60, TF-1 and KG-1) compared with the human normal bone marrow cells (HS-5). Moreover, miR-9 overexpression inhibited HL-60 cell proliferation ability, and promoted apoptosis. However, interfering with miR-9 expression promoted the proliferation of HL-6 cells and inhibited apoptosis. Western blotting results subsequently showed that overexpression of miR-9 could elevate the expression of MAT1, LATS1, and LATS2 in HL-60 cells, and inhibit the expression of YAP, while the interference with miR-9 had the opposite result. Taken together, miR-9 may act as a tumor suppressor by activating the Hippo/YAP signaling pathway of AML cells, which in this way supply ideas for the clinical remedy of AML patients.