Deregulation of focal adhesion pathway mediated by miR-659-3p is implicated in bone marrow infiltration of stage M neuroblastoma patients

ABSTRACT: Presence of BM-infiltrating neuroblastoma (NB) cells occurs in about 50% of patients affected by this peculiar pediatric cancer. Children aged more than 18 months at diagnosis with metastatic NB are high-risk patients with 25-30% overall survival at 5 years, despite multimodal aggressive therapy. Little is known about the metastatic process in NB patients. Hereby, we focused on miRNA expression profiles of BM-infiltrating as compared to those of primary NB tumors. For this purpose, we analyzed 22 BM-infiltrating NB cells, 22 primary NB tumors, and 4 paired BM-infiltrating and primary tumor specimens, all from patients with metastatic disease and aged > 18 months at diagnosis. Statistical analysis indicated that in human BM-infiltrating cells miR-659-3p was down-modulated as compared to primary tumors, in all sets of samples. Functional studies in HTLA and SH-SY5Y NB cell lines by miR-659-3p mimic and inhibitors demonstrated that miR-659-3p regulates the expression of the transcription factor CNOT1, that in turn regulates the expression of AU-rich element (ARE)-containing target genes AKT3, BCL2, THSB2 and CYR61, all belonging to the focal adhesion pathway. Indeed, CNOT1 expression was found significantly higher, whereas that of the ARE-containing target genes was significantly lower in BM-infiltrating cells than in primary tumors. Our findings about a role of the focal adhesion pathway, regulated by miR-659-3p through CNOT1, in NB metastatic process are intriguing for the development of new therapeutic strategies aimed to interrupt the metastatic process.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE65153 | GEO | 2015/04/20

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA273286

REPOSITORIES: GEO