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The 11 th International Workshop on KSHV & Related Agents, Birmingham, UK
Gene Expression I Abstract 30
HOST CELL AND VIRAL MICRORNA (MIRNA) EXPRESSION IN B CELL
LYMPHOMAS
Eve M Coulter, Dan Frampton, Ed Tsao, Paul Kellam
MRC Centre for Medical Molecular Virology, Department of Infection, University College
London, 46 Cleveland Street, London, England W1T 4JF
Abstract
Micro RNAs (miRNAs) are a class of approximately 21- nucleotide non-coding small RNAs
that post-transcriptionally down-regulate the expression of mRNAs bearing
complementary target sequences. Several hundred miRNAs have been predicted within
the human genome and their key role as regulators of important biological pathways
such as development, proliferation, apoptosis and viral infection is becoming clear.
Recent discovery of virus-encoded miRNAs, especially miRNAs encoded by herpesviruses,
indicates that viruses also use this fundamental mode of gene regulation. Using miRNA
microarray technology, (470 human and 64 human viral miRNAs represented), we have
determined the pattern of expression of human, Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and Kaposi’s
sarcoma virus (KSHV) encoded miRNAs in B cell tumour cell lines associated with
different stages of normal B cell development. Here we show that only a small proportion
of human miRNAs are expressed in different B cell tumours cell lines and that difference
in viral miRNA expression are evident between different herpesvirus positive tumour
types. miR-155 and other human miRNAs are differentially expressed across different Bcell
lymphomas including PEL. This suggests potential functional roles for their target
genes in PEL biology. These data show that like virus and host cell gene expression, virus
and host cell miRNA expression is associated with the underlying cell type.
Presenting author Email: rebmeco@ucl.ac.uk
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