MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small noncoding, single-stranded RNAs that inhibit gene expression at a posttranscriptional level, whose abnormal expression has been described in different tumors. The aim of our study was to identify miRNAs potentially implicated in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). We detected an abnormal miRNA expression profile in mononuclear and CD34⁺ cells from patients with CML compared with healthy controls. Of 157 miRNAs tested, hsa-miR-10a, hsa-miR-150, and hsa-miR-151 were down-regulated, whereas hsa-miR-96 was up-regulated in CML cells. Down-regulation of hsa-miR-10a was not dependent on BCR-ABL1 activity and contributed to the increased cell growth of CML cells. We identified the upstream stimulatory factor 2 (USF2) as a potential target of hsa-miR-10a and showed that overexpression of USF2 also increases cell growth. The clinical relevance of these findings was shown in a group of 85 newly diagnosed patients with CML in which expression of hsa-miR-10a was down-regulated in 71% of the patients, whereas expression of USF2 was up-regulated in 60% of the CML patients, with overexpression of USF2 being significantly associated with decreased expression of hsa-miR-10a (P = 0.004). Our results indicate that down-regulation of hsa-miR-10a may increase USF2 and contribute to the increase in cell proliferation of CML implicating a miRNA in the abnormal behavior of CML. (Mol Cancer Res 2008;6(12):1830–40)

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematological malignancy characterized by uncontrolled proliferation, differentiation arrest, and accumulation of immature myeloid progenitors. Although clinical advances in AML have been made, especially in young patients, long-term disease-free survival remains poor, making this disease an unmet therapeutic challenge. Epigenetic alterations and mutations in epigenetic regulators contribute to the pathogenesis of AML, supporting the rationale for the use of epigenetic drugs in patients with AML. While hypomethylating agents have already been approved in AML, the use of other epigenetic inhibitors, such as histone deacetylases (HDAC) inhibitors (HDACi), is under clinical development. HDACi such as Panobinostat, Vorinostat, and Tricostatin A have been shown to promote cell death, autophagy, apoptosis, or growth arrest in preclinical AML models, yet these inhibitors do not seem to be effective as monotherapies, but rather in combination with other drugs. In this review, we discuss the rationale for the use of different HDACi in patients with AML, the results of preclinical studies, and the results obtained in clinical trials. Although so far the results with HDACi in clinical trials in AML have been modest, there are some encouraging data from treatment with the HDACi Pracinostat in combination with DNA demethylating agents.

Granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (G-MDSCs) promote tumor growth and immunosuppression in multiple myeloma (MM). However, their phenotype is not well-established for accurate monitoring and clinical translation. Here, we aimed at providing the phenotypic profile of G-MDSCs based on their prognostic significance in MM, immunosuppressive potential, and molecular program. The pre-established phenotype of G-MDSCs was evaluated in bone marrow samples from controls and MM patients using multidimensional flow cytometry and, surprisingly, we found that CD11b⁺CD14^-CD15⁺CD33⁺HLADR^- cells overlapped with common eosinophils and neutrophils, which were not expanded in MM patients. Thus, we relied on automated clustering to unbiasedly identify all granulocytic subsets in the tumor microenvironment: basophils, eosinophils, immature, intermediate and mature neutrophils. In a series of 267 newly-diagnosed MM patients (GEM2012MENOS65 trial), only the frequency of mature neutrophils at diagnosis was significantly associated with patients' outcome, and a high mature-neutrophils/T-cell ratio resulted in inferior progression-free survival (P<.001). Upon FACSorting of each neutrophil subset, T cell proliferation decreased in presence of mature neutrophils (0.5-fold; P=.016) and the cytotoxic potential of T cells engaged by a BCMAxCD3 bispecific antibody increased notably with the depletion of mature neutrophils (4-fold; P=.0007). Most interestingly, RNAseq of the three subsets revealed that G-MDSCs-related genes were specifically upregulated in mature neutrophils from MM patients vs controls due to differential chromatin accessibility. Taken together, we established a correlation between the clinical significance, immunosuppressive potential and transcriptional network of well-defined neutrophil subsets, providing for the first time, a set of optimal markers (CD11b/CD13/CD16) for accurate monitoring of G-MDCSs in MM.

Background: The discrepancy between the functional improvements yielded experimentally by skeletal myoblasts (SM) transplanted in infarcted myocardium and the paucity of their long-term engraftment has raised the hypothesis of cell-mediated paracrine mechanisms. Methods and results: We analyzed gene expression and growth factors released by undifferentiated human SM (CD56+), myotubes (SM cultured until confluence) and fibroblasts-like cells (CD56−). Gene expression revealed up-regulation of pro-angiogenic (PGF), antiapoptotics (BAG-1, BCL-2), heart development (TNNT2, TNNC1) and extracellular matrix remodelling (MMP-2, MMP-7) genes in SM. In line with the gene expression profile, the analysis of culture supernatants of SM by ELISA identified the release of growth factors involved in angiogenesis (VEGF, PIGF, angiogenin, angiopoietin, HGF and PDGF-BB) as well as proteases involved in matrix remodelling (MMP2, MMP9 and MMP10) and their inhibitors (TIMPs). Culture of smooth muscle cells (SMC), cardiomyocytes (HL-1) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) with SM-released conditioned media demonstrated an increased proliferation of HUVEC, SMC and cardiomyocytes (p<0.05) and a decrease in apoptosis of cardiomyocytes (p<0.05). Analysis of nude rats transplanted with human SM demonstrated expression of human-specific MMP-2, TNNI3, CNN3, PGF, TNNT2, PAX7, TGF-β, and IGF-1 1 month after transplant. Conclusions: Our data support the paracrine hypothesis whereby myoblast-secreted factors may contribute to the beneficial effects of myogenic cell transplantation in infarcted myocardium.