The Role of Mir-150 as a Tumor Suppressor In Malignant Lymphoma

Abstract 465

Disease specific genetic alteration or translocation have not been identified in NK/T cell lymphoma. We recently demonstrated that over expressions of miR-21 and/or miR-155 are frequently occurring in natural killer (NK) cell lymphoma/leukemia and deeply associated with their lymphomagenesis by deregulation of AKT signaling. In this study, we tried to identify tumor suppressor miRNA(s) in malignant lymphomas including B-cell, NK-cell and CD4+T-cell lymphoma, by using quantitative PCR and/or Northern blot analysis. We found that miR-150 in both cell lines and primary samples of NK and T-cell lymphoma showed significantly lower expression than those of normal natural killer cells and CD4+T cells. To examine the role for lymphomagenesis, we stably transduced miR-150 into lymphoma cell lines. Enforced expression of miR-150 in NK/T cell lymphoma cell lines showed increased levels of susceptibility of apoptosis, and showed senescence with reduced levels of telomerase activity and telomere DNA shortening. We further demonstrated that miR-150 directly down regulate AKT2, leading to reduced expression of phosphorylated AKT^ser473/474 with upregulation of tumor suppressors, Bim, p27 and p53. Since it has been proven that AKT kinase phosphorylate hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcript), downregulation of miR-150 in lymphomas lead to activate telomerase activity, resulting immortalization of the cancer cells. These results suggest that miR-150 play as a role of tumor suppressor in NK/T-cell lymphoma. Our recent and previous report demonstrate that downregulation of miR-150 and upregulation of miR-21/miR-155 collaborately contribute to NK/T-cell lymphomagenesis by deregulating AKT signaling. These findings will give a new insight into the pathogenesis of NK/T cell lymphoma and the miR-150 itself and/or AKT targeting therapy can be a useful against aggressive lymphoma.