An oncogenic role of miR-142-3p in human T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) by targeting glucocorticoid receptor-α and cAMP/PKA pathways

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a family of 19-24 nucleotide non-coding RNAs with posttranscriptional regulatory functions. The involvement of miRNAs in normal hematopoiesis implies that deregulated miRNAs might contribute to leukemogenesis. To date, although certain miRNAs have been established a clear oncogenic role in hematological malignancies, other individual miRNAs potentially involved in human leukemogenesis still remain elusive. In this report, we showed that miR-142-3p was upregulated in human T-leukemic cell lines and primary T-leukemic cells isolated from T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) patients and its expressive levels were correlated with patients' prognosis. Such an oncogenic role of miR-142-3p could be explained by its targeting cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)/protein kinase A (PKA) and glucocorticoid receptor alpha (GR alpha). High levels of miR-142-3p resulted in low levels of cAMP and weak activity of PKA, thus relieving the inhibitory effect of PKA on T-leukemic cell proliferation. Meanwhile, miR-142-3p decreased GR alpha protein expression by directly targeting the 3'-untranslational region of GR alpha mRNA, leading to glucocorticoid resistance. Transfection of the miR-142-3p inhibitor effectively converted glucocorticoid resistance, because of the resultant increase of GR alpha expression and PKA activity. These findings suggest that miR-142-3p is critical in T-cell leukemogenesis and may serve as a potential therapeutic target in T-ALL patients. Leukemia (2012) 26, 769-777; doi:10.1038/leu.2011.273; published online 7 October 2011