Background & Aims-microRNAs (miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression negatively. Although a role for aberrant miRNA expression in cancer has been postulated, the pathophysiologic role and relevance of aberrantly expressed miRNA to tumor biology has not been established.

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Kip1 in the resistant OHT R cells caused enhanced cell death when exposed to tamoxifen. This is the first study demonstrating a relationship between miR-221/222 expression and HER2/neu overexpression in primary breast tumors that are generally resistant to tamoxifen therapy. This finding also provides the rationale for the application of altered expression of specific miRNAs as a predictive tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer marker.Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women, accounting for 31% of all female cancers. An estimated 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer was diagnosed in the United States in 2007, and 40,460 women will die of this cancer. Over two-thirds of breast cancers exhibit high concentrations of estrogen receptor, which contribute to tumor growth and progression. Blocking the steroid hormone pathway with tamoxifen and/or oophorectomy has been shown to be effective in this patient population. The Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group overview demonstrated a significant improvement in 15-year survival with the addition of adjuvant tamoxifen for 5 years following surgery (1). Furthermore, tamoxifen can also reduce the incidence of contralateral breast cancer and has been approved as a prophylactic agent to prevent breast cancer. Despite this accomplishment in the management of women with potentially endocrine-responsive breast cancers, a significant proportion of these women will experience disease progression due to either an intrinsic or acquired resistance to tamoxifen.Nongenomic activation of epidermal growth factor receptor/ HER2 signaling by tamoxifen is an important factor contributing to tamoxifen resistance. This leads to activation of both the p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and Akt signaling pathways, which favor cell proliferation and survival. These changes could be blocked by the selective epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor gefitnib, suggesting that epidermal growth factor receptor/HER2 signaling is directly involved in tamoxifen resistance (2). The preclinical data are corroborated by clinical observations that tumors expressing HER2 exhibit poor outcome when treated with tamoxifen (3). None of the molecular mechanisms proposed for tamoxifen resistance (for review, see Ref. 4) have led to the development of a gene expression profile that can consistently identify resistant tumors and benefit these patients from upfront use of alternative drugs such as aromatase inhibitors.Recent studies have highlighted the key regulatory roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) 3 in all fundamental cellular processes in animals and plants. Altered expression of miRNAs in primary human cancers has been used for tumor diagnosis, classification, staging, and prognosis (5). These small noncoding RNAs regulate expression of their target proteins primarily by inhibiting translation of the target mRNA and in some cases by inducing rapid decay of the message (6). A study with 76 neo-* This work was supported, in whole or in part, by National Institut...

MicroRNAs (miRs) are conserved small non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression. The miR profiles are markedly altered in cancers and some of them have a causal role in tumorigenesis. Here, we report changes in miR expression profile in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) developed in male Fisher rats-fed folic acid, methionine, and choline-deficient (FMD) diet. Comparison of the miR profile by microarray analysis showed altered expression of some miRs in hepatomas compared to the livers from age-matched rats on the normal diet. family of genes was upregulated, miR-122, an abundant liver-specific miR, was downregulated in the tumors. The decrease in hepatic miR-122 was a tumor-specific event because it did not occur in the rats switched to the folate and methyladequate diet after 36 weeks on deficient diet, which did not lead to hepatocarcinogenesis. miR-122 was also silent in a transplanted rat hepatoma. Extrapolation of this study to human primary HCCs revealed that miR-122 expression was significantly (P = 0.013) reduced in 10 out of 20 tumors compared to the pair-matched control tissues. These findings suggest that the downregulation of miR-122 is associated with hepatocarcinogenesis and could be a potential biomarker for liver cancers. RNAs that block translation by imperfect base pairing to the 3′-untranslated regions (3′-UTR) of specific mRNA and by inducing mRNA degradation. Most miRs are expressed as primary transcripts transcribed by pol II, some miRs in clusters are coordinately expressed, and others are generated from introns. Primary miRs (pri-miRs) have 5′ caps and 3′ poly (A) tails, which is processed to mature miR by specific ribonuclease complexes (for review, see Zeng et al. [2005]). miRs play a key role in regulating diverse cellular processes that include development, differentiation, cell growth, apoptosis, viral infection, and metabolism (for review, see Ambros [2004]). KeywordsLike mRNAs, the majority of miRs are expressed predominantly in a tissue-specific manner whereas some are enriched in certain tissue [Lagos-Quintana et al., 2002]. Recently, much attention has been focused on miRs and cancer since miR genes are located at chromosomal regions, characterized by fragile sites and regions of deletion or amplification [Calin et al., 2004]. Some of these miRs deregulated in cancer function as tumor suppressors or oncogenes (for review, see Hwang and Mendell [2006]).Our laboratory has been studying the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of gene expression in rodent and human primary hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) [Majumder et al., 2002;Ghoshal et al., 2004]. To study the altered regulation of gene expression at different stages of hepatocarcinogeneis, we have used a rat model. In this model, Fisher male rats-fed folate and methyl-deficient (FMD) diets develop preneoplastic nodules after 36 weeks and HCCs after 54 weeks Li, 2006]. Recently, we have used this rat model to identify the genes that are regulated tumor-specifically by epigenetic mechanism ]. This mode...

MicroRNAs (miR) are a class of small (f21 nucleotide) noncoding RNAs that, in general, negatively regulate gene expression. Some miRs harboring CGIs undergo methylationmediated silencing, a characteristic of many tumor suppressor genes. To identify such miRs in liver cancer, the miRNA expression profile was analyzed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines treated with 5-azacytidine (DNA hypomethylating agent) and/or trichostatin A (histone deacetylase inhibitor). The results showed that these epigenetic drugs differentially regulate expression of a few miRs, particularly miR-1-1, in HCC cells. The CGI spanning exon 1 and intron 1 of miR-1-1 was methylated in HCC cell lines and in primary human HCCs but not in matching liver tissues. The miR-1-1 gene was hypomethylated and activated in DNMT1À/À HCT 116 cells but not in DNMT3B null cells, indicating a key role for DNMT1 in its methylation. miR-1 expression was also markedly reduced in primary human hepatocellular carcinomas compared with matching normal liver tissues. Ectopic expression of miR-1 in HCC cells inhibited cell growth and reduced replication potential and clonogenic survival. The expression of FoxP1 and MET harboring three and two miR-1 cognate sites, respectively, in their respective 3 ¶-untranslated regions, was markedly reduced by ectopic miR-1. Up-regulation of several miR-1 targets including FoxP1, MET, and HDAC4 in primary human HCCs and down-regulation of their expression in 5-AzaC-treated HCC cells suggest their role in hepatocarcinogenesis. The inhibition of cell cycle progression and induction of apoptosis after re-expression of miR-1 are some of the mechanisms by which DNA hypomethylating agents suppress hepatocarcinoma cell growth. [Cancer Res 2008;68(13):5049-58]

5-Azacytidine-and 5-aza-deoxycytidine (5-aza-CdR)-mediated reactivation of tumor suppressor genes silenced by promoter methylation has provided an alternate approach in cancer therapy. Despite the importance of epigenetic therapy, the mechanism of action of DNA-hypomethylating agents in vivo has not been completely elucidated. Here we report that among three functional DNA methyltransferases (DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B), the maintenance methyltransferase, DNMT1, was rapidly degraded by the proteasomal pathway upon treatment of cells with these drugs.

Protein arginine methyltransferase PRMT5 interacts with human SWI/SNF complexes and methylates histones H3R8 and H4R3. To elucidate the role of PRMT5 in human cancer, we analyzed PRMT5 expression in normal human B lymphocytes and a panel of lymphoid cancer cell lines as well as mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) clinical samples. We show that PRMT5 protein levels are elevated in all cancer cells, including clinical samples examined despite its low rate of transcription and messenger RNA stability. Remarkably, polysome profiling revealed that PRMT5 mRNA is translated more efficiently in Mino and JeKo MCL cells than in normal B cells, and that decreased miR-92b and miR-96 expression augments PRMT5 translation. Consequently, global methylation of H3R8 and H4R3 is increased and is accompanied by repression of suppressor of tumorigenecity 7 (ST7) in lymphoid cancer cells. Furthermore, knockdown of PRMT5 expression reduces proliferation of transformed JeKo and Raji cells. Thus, our studies indicate that aberrant expression of PRMT5 leads to altered epigenetic modification of chromatin, which in turn impacts transcriptional performance of anti-cancer genes and growth of transformed lymphoid cells.

To identify microRNAs that may play a causal role in hepatocarcinogenesis, we used an animal model in which C57/BL6 mice fed choline deficient and amino acid defined (CDAA) diet develop preneoplastic lesions at 65 weeks and hepatocellular carcinomas after 84 weeks. miRNA expression profiling showed significant upregulation of miR-181b and miR-181d in the livers of mice as early as 32 weeks that persisted at preneoplastic stage. The expression of TIMP3, a tumor suppressor and a validated miR-181 target, was markedly suppressed in the livers of mice fed CDAA diet. Upregulation of hepatic TGFβ and its downstream mediators Smad 2, 3 and 4 and increase in phospho-Smad2 in the liver nuclear extract correlated with elevated miR-181b/d in mice fed CDAA diet. The levels of the precursor and mature miR-181b were augmented upon exposure of hepatic cells to TGFβ and were significantly reduced by siRNA-mediated depletion of Smad4, demonstrating the involvement of TGFβ signaling pathway in miR-181b expression. Ectopic expression and depletion of miR-181b showed that miR-181b enhanced MMP2 and MMP9 activity and promoted growth, clonogenic survival, migration and invasion of HCC cells that could be reversed by modulating TIMP3 level. Further, depletion of miR-181b inhibited tumor growth of HCC cells in nude mice. miR-181b also enhanced resistance of HCC cells to the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin. Based on these results, we conclude that upregulation of miR-181b at early stages of feeding CDAA diet promotes hepatocarcinogenesis.