ABSTRACT: Brain tumor neurospheres (BTCSs) are cancer cells with neural stem cell-like properties found in the fatal brain tumor glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). These cells account for less than 1% of total tumor cells, are poorly differentiated and are believed to be involved in tumor induction, progression, treatment resistance and relapse. Specific miRNAs play important roles in modulating the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells, therefore, we aimed to identify miRNAs controlling differentiation in GBM-BTSCs through high throughput screening miRNA array profiling. We compared the miRNA expression profiles at the neurosphere state and upon 4 and 14days of differentiation by using LIMMA, finding 21 differentially expressed miRNAs : hsa-miR-103, hsa-miR-106a, hsa-miR-106b, hsa-miR-15b, hsa-miR-17, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-miR-20a, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-301a and hsa-miR-93 were found up-regulated upon differentiation, while hsa-miR-100, hsa-miR-1259, hsa-miR-21, hsa-miR-22, hsa-miR-221, hsa-miR-222, hsa-miR-23b, hsa-miR-27a, hsa-miR-27b, hsa-miR-29a and hsa-miR-29b were down-regulated. Expression of 11 of the 21 miRNAs was examined by qPCR and 7 of them were validated: hsa-miR-21, hsa-miR-29a, hsa-miR-29b, hsa-miR-221 and hsa-miR-222 increased their expression upon differentiation, while hsa-miR-93 and hsa-miR-106a were inhibited. Functional studies demonstrated that miR-21 over-expression induced the expression of glial and/or neuronal cell markers in the neurospheres, possibly due to SPRY1 targeting by miR-21 in these cells, while miR-221 and miR-222 inhibition at the differentiated state reduced the expression of those differentiation markers. On the other hand, miR-29a and miR-29b targeted MCL1 in the GBM neurospheres and increased apoptotic cell death. Gene expression in differentiated cells relative to neurospheres in four different glioblastoma cultures
