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Argonaute proteins are pivotal regulators of gene expression mediating miRNAs function. Modulating their activity would be extremely useful to elucidate the processes governing small-RNAs-guided gene silencing. We report the identification of a chemical compound able to compete with Argonaute 2 miRNAs binding, and we demonstrate that this functional inhibition determines effects similar to Argonaute 2 shRNA-mediated down-regulation, favoring granulocytic differentiation of the acute promyelocytic leukemia cell line NB4 in response to retinoic acid.

MicroRNAs are key regulators of many biological processes, including cell differentiation. These small RNAs exert their function assembled in the RNA-induced silencing complexes (RISCs), where members of Argonaute (Ago) family of proteins provide a unique platform for target recognition and gene silencing. Here, by using myeloid cell lines and primary blasts, we show that Ago2 has a key role in human monocytic cell fate determination and in LPS-induced inflammatory response of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (D3)-treated myeloid cells. The silencing of Ago2 impairs the D3-dependent miR-17-5p/20a/106a, miR-125b and miR-155 downregulation, the accumulation of their translational targets AML1, VDR and C/EBPβ and monocytic cell differentiation. Moreover, we show that Ago2 is recruited on miR-155 host gene promoter and on the upstream region of an overlapping antisense lncRNA, determining their epigenetic silencing, and miR-155 downregulation. These findings highlight Ago2 as a new factor in myeloid cell fate determination in acute myeloid leukemia cells.