Global profiling in vestibular schwannomas shows critical deregulation of microRNAs and upregulation in those included in chromosomal region 14q32

Background:Vestibular schwannomas are benign tumors that arise from Schwann cells in the VIII cranial pair and usually present NF2 gene mutations and/or loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 22q. Deregulation has also been found in several genes, such as ERBB2 and NRG1. MicroRNAs are non-coding RNAs approximately 21 to 23 nucleotides in length that regulate mRNAs, usually by degradation at the post-transcriptional level.Methods:We used microarray technology to test the deregulation of miRNAs and other non-coding RNAs present in GeneChip miRNA 1.0 (Affymetrix) over 16 vestibular schwannomas and 3 control-nerves, validating 10 of them by qRT-PCR.Findings:Our results showed the deregulation of 174 miRNAs, including miR-10b, miR-206, miR-183 and miR-204, and the upregulation of miR-431, miR-221, miR-21 and miR-720, among others. The results also showed an aberrant expression of other non-coding RNAs. We also found a general upregulation of the miRNA cluster located at chromosome 14q32.Conclusion:Our results suggest that several miRNAs are involved in tumor formation and/or maintenance and that global upregulation of the 14q32 chromosomal site contains miRNAs that may represent a therapeutic target for this neoplasm
Supported by grants PI 07/0577 and 10/1972 from FIS, Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, Spain and grant PI10-045 from the Fundación Sociosanitaria de Castilla-La Mancha of the Consejería de Salud y Bienestar Social, Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain