Bioinformatic Prediction of miRNAs Targeting APRIL and BAFF Genes in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

 Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is the most commonly occurring leukemia in adults, accounting for about 30-25% of total leukemia. One of the important etiological causes of this leukemia is the disruption of the Nuclear Factor Kappa B (NF-kB) signaling pathway. The two proteins of Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (APRIL) and B-Cell Activating Factor (BAFF) play a role in the pathogenesis of this leukemia by affecting the NF-kB signaling pathway. In this study, due to the effect of miRNAs in regulating many cellular processes, the prediction of the prominent miRNAs targeting APRIL and BAFF transcripts in B-cell CLL patients was evaluated using specific and different bioinformatics programs.

 Afterwards retrieving the sequences of APRIL and BAFF proteins from the NCBI website, by using several programs including miRanda, TargetScan, miRWalk, DIANA and miRDB with different algorithms, the prediction of miRNAs targeting these genes was investigated.

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Arak University of Medical Sciences.

Based on the scoring system of bioinformatics programs, “hsa-miR-145-5p” and “hsa-miR-185-5p” were identified as miRNAs targeting APRIL gene, while “hsa-miR-424” and “hsa-miR-497”were miRNAs targeting BAFF gene. They were suggested for the practical studies in future.

Based on the important role of APRIL and BAFF genes in the normal process of cell death and B-cell evolution, it seems that the mi-RNAs predicted by bioinformatics programs using different algorithms can be used as a diagnostic molecular biomarker to identify B-cell CLL patients.