Exome sequencing of glioblastoma-derived cancer stem cells reveals rare clinically relevant frameshift deletion in MLLT1 gene.

BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a heterogeneous CNS neoplasm which causes significant morbidity and mortality. One reason for the poor prognostic outcome of GBM is attributed to the presence of cancer stem cells (CSC) which confer resistance against standard chemo- and radiotherapeutics modalities. Two types of GBM-associated CSC were isolated from the same patient: tumor core- (c-CSC) and peritumor tissue-derived cancer stem cells (p-CSC). Our experiments are focused on glioblastoma-IDH-wild type, and no disease-defining alterations were present in histone, BRAF or other genes. METHODS: In the present study, potential differences in genetic variants between c-CSC versus p-CSC derived from four GBM patients were investigated with the aims of (1) comparing the exome sequences between all the c-CSC or p-CSC to identify the common variants; (2) identifying the variants affecting the function of genes known to be involved in cancer origin and development. RESULTS: By comparative analyses, we identified common gene single nucleotide variants (SNV) in all GBM c-CSC and p-CSC, a potentially deleterious variant was a frameshift deletion at Gln461fs in the MLLT1 gene, that was encountered only in p-CSC samples with different allelic frequency. CONCLUSIONS: We discovered a potentially harmful frameshift deletion at Gln461fs in the MLLT1 gene. Further investigation is required to confirm the presence of the identified mutations in patient tissue samples, as well as the significance of the frameshift mutation in the MLLT1 gene on GBM biology and response to therapy based on genomic functional experiments.

Circulating miRNAs in Small Extracellular Vesicles Secreted by a Human Melanoma Xenograft in Mouse Brains.

The identification of liquid biomarkers remains a major challenge to improve the diagnosis of melanoma patients with brain metastases. Circulating miRNAs packaged into tumor-secreted small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) contribute to tumor progression. To investigate the release of tumor-secreted miRNAs by brain metastasis, we developed a xenograft model where human metastatic melanoma cells were injected intracranially in nude mice. The comprehensive profiles of both free miRNAs and those packaged in sEVs secreted by the melanoma cells in the plasma demonstrated that most (80%) of the sEV-associated miRNAs were also present in serum EVs from a cohort of metastatic melanomas, included in a publicly available dataset. Remarkably, among them, we found three miRNAs (miR-224-5p, miR-130a-3p and miR-21-5p) in sEVs showing a trend of upregulation during melanoma progression. Our model is proven to be valuable for identifying miRNAs in EVs that are unequivocally secreted by melanoma cells in the brain and could be associated to disease progression.

Expression profiling of microRNAs and isomiRs in conventional central chondrosarcoma.

Conventional central chondrosarcoma (CCC) is a malignant bone tumor that is characterized by the production of chondroid tissue. Since radiation therapy and chemotherapy have limited effects on CCC, treatment of most patients depends on surgical resection. This study aimed to identify the expression profiles of microRNAs (miRNAs) and isomiRs in CCC tissues to highlight their possible participation to the regulation of pathways critical for the formation and growth of this type of tumor. Our study analyzed miRNAs and isomiRs from Grade I (GI), Grade II (GII), and Grade III (GIII) histologically validated CCC tissue samples. While the different histological grades shared a similar expression profile for the top abundant miRNAs, we found several microRNAs and isomiRs showing a strong different modulation in GII + GIII vs GI grade samples and their involvement in tumor biology could be consistently hypothesized. We then in silico validated these differently expressed miRNAs in a larger chondrosarcoma public dataset and confirmed the expression trend for 17 out of 34 miRNAs. Our results clearly suggests that the contribution of miRNA deregulation, and their targeted pathways, to the progression of CCC could be relevant and strongly indicates that when studying miRNA deregulation in tumors, not only the canonical miRNAs, but the whole set of corresponding isomiRs should be taken in account. Improving understanding of the precise roles of miRNAs and isomiRs over the course of central chondrosarcoma progression could help identifying possible targets for precision medicine therapeutic intervention.

RNA-seq reveals distinctive RNA profiles of small extracellular vesicles from different human liver cancer cell lines.

Liver cancer (LC) is one of the most common cancers and represents the third highest cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Extracellular vesicle (EVs) cargoes, which are selectively enriched in RNA, offer great promise for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of LC. Our study analyzed the RNA cargoes of EVs derived from 4 liver-cancer cell lines: HuH7, Hep3B, HepG2 (hepato-cellular carcinoma) and HuH6 (hepatoblastoma), generating two different sets of sequencing libraries for each. One library was size-selected for small RNAs and the other targeted the whole transcriptome. Here are reported genome wide data of the expression level of coding and non-coding transcripts, microRNAs, isomiRs and snoRNAs providing the first comprehensive overview of the extracellular-vesicle RNA cargo released from LC cell lines. The EV-RNA expression profiles of the four liver cancer cell lines share a similar background, but cell-specific features clearly emerge showing the marked heterogeneity of the EV-cargo among the individual cell lines, evident both for the coding and non-coding RNA species.

A sketch of known and novel MYCN-associated miRNA networks in neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma (NB) originates from neural crest-derived precursors and represents the most common childhood extracranial solid tumour. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs that participate in a wide variety of biological processes by regulating gene expression, appear to play an essential role within the NB context. High-throughput next generation sequencing (NGS) was applied to study the miRNA transcriptome in a cohort of NB tumours with and without MYCN-amplification (MNA and MNnA, respectively) and in dorsal root ganglia (DRG), as a control. Out of the 128 miRNAs differentially expressed in the NB vs. DRG comparison, 47 were expressed at higher levels, while 81 were expressed at lower levels in the NB tumours. We also found that 23 miRNAs were differentially expressed in NB with or without MYCN-amplification, with 17 miRNAs being upregulated and 6 being downregulated in the MNA subtypes. Functional annotation analysis of the target genes of these differentially expressed miRNAs demonstrated that many mRNAs were involved in cancer-related pathways, such as DNA-repair and apoptosis as well as FGFR and EGFR signalling. In particular, we found that miR-628-3p negatively affects MYCN gene expression. Furthermore, we identified a novel miRNA candidate with variable expression in MNA vs. MNnA tumours, whose putative target genes are implicated in the mTOR pathway. The present study provides further insight into the molecular mechanisms that correlate miRNA dysregulation to NB development and progression.

The interference of Notch1 target Hes1 affects cell growth, differentiation and invasiveness of glioblastoma stem cells through modulation of multiple oncogenic targets.

The invasive and lethal nature of Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) necessitates the continuous identification of molecular targets and search of efficacious therapies to inhibit GBM growth. The GBM resistance to chemotherapy and radiation it is attributed to the existence of a rare fraction of cancer stem cells (CSC) that we have identified within the tumor core and in peritumor tissue of GBM. Since Notch1 pathway is a potential therapeutic target in brain cancer, earlier we highlighted that pharmacological inhibition of Notch1 signalling by γ-secretase inhibitor-X (GSI-X), reduced cell growth of some c-CSC than to their respective p-CSC, but produced negligible effects on cell cycle distribution, apoptosis and cell invasion. In the current study, we assessed the effects of Hes1-targeted shRNA, a Notch1 gene target, specifically on GBM CSC refractory to GSI-X. Depletion of Hes1 protein induces major changes in cell morphology, cell growth rate and in the invasive ability of shHes1-CSC in response to growth factor EGF. shHes1-CSC show a decrease of the stemness marker Nestin concurrently to a marked increase of neuronal marker MAP2 compared to pLKO.1-CSC. Those effects correlated with repression of EGFR protein and modulation of Stat3 phosphorylation at Y705 and S727 residues. In the last decade Stat3 has gained attention as therapeutic target in cancer but there is not yet any approved Stat3-based glioma therapy. Herein, we report that exposure to a Stat3/5 inhibitor, induced apoptosis either in shHes1-CSC or control cells. Taken together, Hes1 seems to be a favorable target but not sufficient itself to target GBM efficaciously, therefore a possible pharmacological intervention should provide for the use of anti-Stat3/5 drugs either alone or in combination regimen.

Lamin A/C Is Required for ChAT-Dependent Neuroblastoma Differentiation.

The mouse neuroblastoma N18TG2 clone is unable to differentiate and is defective for the enzymes of the biosynthesis of neurotransmitters. The forced expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in these cells results in the synthesis and release of acetylcholine (Ach) and hence in the expression of neurospecific features and markers. To understand how the expression of ChAT triggered neuronal differentiation, we studied the differences in genome-wide transcription profiles between the N18TG2 parental cells and its ChAT-expressing 2/4 derived clone. The engagement of the 2/4 cells in the neuronal developmental program was confirmed by the increase of the expression level of several differentiation-related genes and by the reduction of the amount of transcripts of cell cycle genes. At the same time, we observed a massive reorganization of cytoskeletal proteins in terms of gene expression, with the accumulation of the nucleoskeletal lamina component Lamin A/C in differentiating cells. The increase of the Lmna transcripts induced by ChAT expression in 2/4 cells was mimicked treating the parental N18TG2 cells with the acetylcholine receptor agonist carbachol, thus demonstrating the direct role played by this receptor in neuron nuclei maturation. Conversely, a treatment of 2/4 cells with the muscarinic receptor antagonist atropine resulted in the reduction of the amount of Lmna RNA. Finally, the hypothesis that Lmna gene product might play a crucial role in the ChAT-dependent molecular differentiation cascade was strongly supported by Lmna knockdown in 2/4 cells leading to the downregulation of genes involved in differentiation and cytoskeleton formation and to the upregulation of genes known to regulate self-renewal and stemness.

PDGFRα depletion attenuates glioblastoma stem cells features by modulation of STAT3, RB1 and multiple oncogenic signals.

Platelet derived growth factor receptors (PDGFRs) play an important role in tumor pathogenesis, and they are frequently overexpressed in glioblastoma (GBM). Earlier we have shown a higher protein expression of PDGFR isoforms (α and ß) in peritumoral-tissue derived cancer stem cells (p-CSC) than in tumor core (c-CSC) of several GBM affected patients. In the current study, in order to assess the activity of PDGFRα/PDGF-AA signaling axis, we performed time course experiments to monitor the effects of exogenous PDGF-AA on the expression of downstream target genes in c-CSC vs p-CSC. Interestingly, in p-CSC we detected the upregulation of Y705-phosphorylated Stat3, concurrent with a decrement of Rb1 protein in its active state, within minutes of PDGF-AA addition. This finding prompted us to elucidate the role of PDGFRα in self-renewal, invasion and differentiation in p-CSC by using short hairpin RNA depletion of PDGFRα expression. Notably, in PDGFRα-depleted cells, protein analysis revealed attenuation of stemness-related and glial markers expression, alongside early activation of the neuronal marker MAP2a/b that correlated with the induction of tumor suppressor Rb1. The in vitro reduction of the invasive capacity of PDGFRα-depleted CSC as compared to parental cells correlated with the downmodulation of markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition phenotype and angiogenesis. Surprisingly, we observed the induction of anti-apoptotic proteins and compensatory oncogenic signals such as EDN1, EDNRB, PRKCB1, PDGF-C and PDGF-D. To conclude, we hypothesize that the newly discovered PDGFRα/Stat3/Rb1 regulatory axis might represent a potential therapeutic target for GBM treatment.

Histone Modifications in a Mouse Model of Early Adversities and Panic Disorder: Role for Asic1 and Neurodevelopmental Genes.

Hyperventilation following transient, CO2-induced acidosis is ubiquitous in mammals and heritable. In humans, respiratory and emotional hypersensitivity to CO2 marks separation anxiety and panic disorders, and is enhanced by early-life adversities. Mice exposed to the repeated cross-fostering paradigm (RCF) of interference with maternal environment show heightened separation anxiety and hyperventilation to 6% CO2-enriched air. Gene-environment interactions affect CO2 hypersensitivity in both humans and mice. We therefore hypothesised that epigenetic modifications and increased expression of genes involved in pH-detection could explain these relationships. Medullae oblongata of RCF- and normally-reared female outbred mice were assessed by ChIP-seq for H3Ac, H3K4me3, H3K27me3 histone modifications, and by SAGE for differential gene expression. Integration of multiple experiments by network analysis revealed an active component of 148 genes pointing to the mTOR signalling pathway and nociception. Among these genes, Asic1 showed heightened mRNA expression, coherent with RCF-mice's respiratory hypersensitivity to CO2 and altered nociception. Functional enrichment and mRNA transcript analyses yielded a consistent picture of enhancement for several genes affecting chemoception, neurodevelopment, and emotionality. Particularly, results with Asic1 support recent human findings with panic and CO2 responses, and provide new perspectives on how early adversities and genes interplay to affect key components of panic and related disorders.

Regulation of nucleus accumbens transcript levels in mice by early-life social stress and cocaine.

Much interest has been piqued regarding the quality of one's environment at early ages in modulating the susceptibility to drug addiction in adulthood. However, the molecular mechanisms that are engaged during early trauma and mediate the risk for drug addiction are poorly understood. In rodents, exposure to early-life stress alters the rewarding effects of cocaine, amphetamine, and morphine in adulthood. Recently, we demonstrated that the exposure of juvenile mice to social threat (Social Stress, S-S) promoted cocaine-seeking behavior and relapse of cocaine-seeking after periods of withdrawal, compared with unhandled controls (UN) and with juvenile mice that experienced only daily isolation in a novel environment (no social stress, NS-S). Interestingly, while the exposure to NS-S slightly increased cocaine-seeking behavior compared with UN, the same was not sufficient to promote cocaine reinstatement. In this study, we examined the long-term transcriptional changes that are induced by S-S compared to NS-S and linked the increased susceptibility of S-S mice to cocaine reinstatement. To this end, we performed genome-wide RNA sequencing analysis in the nucleus accumbens (NAC), which revealed that 89 transcripts were differentially expressed between S-S and NS-S mice. By Gene Ontology classification, these hits were enriched in genes that mediate cell proliferation, neuronal differentiation, and neuron/forebrain development. Eleven of these genes have been reported to be involved in substance use disorders, and the remaining genes are novel candidates in this area. We characterized 4 candidates with regard to their significant neurobiological relevance (ZIC1, ZIC2, FABP7, and PRDM12) and measured their expression in the NAC by immunohistochemistry. These findings provide insights into novel molecular mechanisms in NAC that might be associated with the risk of relapse in cocaine-dependent individuals.

Down-regulation of the Lamin A/C in neuroblastoma triggers the expansion of tumor initiating cells.

Tumor-initiating cells constitute a population within a tumor mass that shares properties with normal stem cells and is considered responsible for therapy failure in many cancers. We have previously demonstrated that knockdown of the nuclear envelope component Lamin A/C in human neuroblastoma cells inhibits retinoic acid-mediated differentiation and results in a more aggressive phenotype. In addition, Lamin A/C is often lost in advanced tumors and changes in the nuclear envelope composition occur during tumor progression. Based on our previous data and considering that Lamin A/C is expressed in differentiated tissues, we hypothesize that the lack of Lamin A/C could predispose cells toward a stem-like phenotype, thus influencing the development of tumor-initiating cells in neuroblastoma. This paper demonstrates that knockdown of Lamin A/C triggers the development of a tumor-initiating cell population with self-renewing features in human neuroblastoma cells. We also demonstrates that the development of TICs is due to an increased expression of MYCN gene and that in neuroblastoma exists an inverse relationship between LMNA and MYCN expression.

Brahma is required for cell cycle arrest and late muscle gene expression during skeletal myogenesis.

Although the two catalytic subunits of the SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complex--Brahma (Brm) and Brg1--are almost invariably co-expressed, their mutually exclusive incorporation into distinct SWI/SNF complexes predicts that Brg1- and Brm-based SWI/SNF complexes execute specific functions. Here, we show that Brg1 and Brm have distinct functions at discrete stages of muscle differentiation. While Brg1 is required for the activation of muscle gene transcription at early stages of differentiation, Brm is required for Ccnd1 repression and cell cycle arrest prior to the activation of muscle genes. Ccnd1 knockdown rescues the ability to exit the cell cycle in Brm-deficient myoblasts, but does not recover terminal differentiation, revealing a previously unrecognized role of Brm in the activation of late muscle gene expression independent from the control of cell cycle. Consistently, Brm null mice displayed impaired muscle regeneration after injury, with aberrant proliferation of satellite cells and delayed formation of new myofibers. These data reveal stage-specific roles of Brm during skeletal myogenesis, via formation of repressive and activatory SWI/SNF complexes.

The transcriptome and miRNome profiling of glioblastoma tissues and peritumoral regions highlights molecular pathways shared by tumors and surrounding areas and reveals differences between short-term and long-term survivors.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and deadliest primary brain tumor, driving patients to death within 15 months after diagnosis (short term survivors, ST), with the exception of a small fraction of patients (long term survivors, LT) surviving longer than 36 months. Here we present deep sequencing data showing that peritumoral (P) areas differ from healthy white matter, but share with their respective frankly tumoral (C) samples, a number of mRNAs and microRNAs representative of extracellular matrix remodeling, TGFß and signaling, of the involvement of cell types different from tumor cells but contributing to tumor growth, such as microglia or reactive astrocytes. Moreover, we provide evidence about RNAs differentially expressed in ST vs LT samples, suggesting the contribution of TGF-ß signaling in this distinction too. We also show that the edited form of miR-376c-3p is reduced in C vs P samples and in ST tumors compared to LT ones. As a whole, our study provides new insights into the still puzzling distinction between ST and LT tumors, and sheds new light onto that "grey" zone represented by the area surrounding the tumor, which we show to be characterized by the expression of several molecules shared with the proper tumor mass.

Early handling and repeated cross-fostering have opposite effect on mouse emotionality.

Early life events have a crucial role in programming the individual phenotype and exposure to traumatic experiences during infancy can increase later risk for a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions, including mood and anxiety disorders. Animal models of postnatal stress have been developed in rodents to explore molecular mechanisms responsible for the observed short and long lasting neurobiological effects of such manipulations. The main aim of this study was to compare the behavioral and hormonal phenotype of young and adult animals exposed to different postnatal treatments. Outbred mice were exposed to (i) the classical Handling protocol (H: 15 min-day of separation from the mother from day 1 to 14 of life) or to (ii) a Repeated Cross-Fostering protocol (RCF: adoption of litters from day 1 to 4 of life by different dams). Handled mice received more maternal care in infancy and showed the already described reduced emotionality at adulthood. Repeated cross fostered animals did not differ for maternal care received, but showed enhanced sensitivity to separation from the mother in infancy and altered respiratory response to 6% CO2 in breathing air in comparison with controls. Abnormal respiratory responses to hypercapnia are commonly found among humans with panic disorders (PD), and point to RCF-induced instability of the early environment as a valid developmental model for PD. The comparisons between short- and long-term effects of postnatal handling vs. RCF indicate that different types of early adversities are associated with different behavioral profiles, and evoke psychopathologies that can be distinguished according to the neurobiological systems disrupted by early-life manipulations.

Signaling by exosomal microRNAs in cancer.

A class of small non-coding RNAs, the microRNAs (miRNAs), have recently attracted great attention in cancer research since they play a central role in regulation of gene-expression and miRNA aberrant expression is found in almost all types of human cancer. The discovery of circulating miRNAs in body fluids and the finding that they are often tumor specific and can be detected early in tumorigenesis has soon led to the evaluation of their possible use as cancer biomarkers and treatment-response predictors. The evidence that tumor cells communicate via the secretion and delivery of miRNAs packed into tumor-released microvesicles has prompted to investigate miRNA contribution as signaling molecules to the establishment and maintenance of the tumor microenvironment and the metastatic niche in cancer. In this review we highlight the recent advances on the role of exosomal miRNAs as mediators of cancer cell-to-cell communication.

When chocolate seeking becomes compulsion: gene-environment interplay.

BACKGROUND: Eating disorders appear to be caused by a complex interaction between environmental and genetic factors, and compulsive eating in response to adverse circumstances characterizes many eating disorders. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We compared compulsion-like eating in the form of conditioned suppression of palatable food-seeking in adverse situations in stressed C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice, two well-characterized inbred strains, to determine the influence of gene-environment interplay on this behavioral phenotype. Moreover, we tested the hypothesis that low accumbal D2 receptor (R) availability is a genetic risk factor of food compulsion-like behavior and that environmental conditions that induce compulsive eating alter D2R expression in the striatum. To this end, we measured D1R and D2R expression in the striatum and D1R, D2R and α1R levels in the medial prefrontal cortex, respectively, by western blot. RESULTS: Exposure to environmental conditions induces compulsion-like eating behavior, depending on genetic background. This behavioral pattern is linked to decreased availability of accumbal D2R. Moreover, exposure to certain environmental conditions upregulates D2R and downregulates α1R in the striatum and medial prefrontal cortex, respectively, of compulsive animals. These findings confirm the function of gene-environment interplay in the manifestation of compulsive eating and support the hypothesis that low accumbal D2R availability is a "constitutive" genetic risk factor for compulsion-like eating behavior. Finally, D2R upregulation and α1R downregulation in the striatum and medial prefrontal cortex, respectively, are potential neuroadaptive responses that parallel the shift from motivated to compulsive eating.

Impact of different ChIP-Seq protocols on DNA integrity and quality of bioinformatics analysis results.

Different ChIP-Seq protocols may have a significant impact on the final outcome in terms of quality, number and distribution of called peaks. Sample DNA undergoes a long procedure before the final sequencing step, and damaged DNA can result in excessive mismatches in the alignment with reference genome. In this letter, we present the effect of well-defined modifications (timing of formaldehyde crosslink reversal, brand of the sonicator) of standard ChIP-Seq protocol on parallel samples derived from the same cell line correlating the initial DNA quality control metrics to the final bioinformatics analysis results.

PDGF receptor alpha inhibition induces apoptosis in glioblastoma cancer stem cells refractory to anti-Notch and anti-EGFR treatment.

BACKGROUND: Cancer stem cells (CSC) represent a rare fraction of cancer cells characterized by resistance to chemotherapy and radiation, therefore nowadays there is great need to develop new targeted therapies for brain tumors and our study aim to target pivotal transmembrane receptors such as Notch, EGFR and PDGFR, which are already under investigation in clinical trials setting for the treatment of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). METHODS: MTS assay was performed to evaluate cells response to pharmacological treatments. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western blots were performed to state the expression of Notch1, EGFR and PDGFRα/ß and the biological effects exerted by either single or combined targeted therapy in GBM CSC. GBM CSC invasive ability was tested in vitro in absence or presence of Notch and/or EGFR signaling inhibitors. RESULTS: In this study, we investigated gene expression and function of Notch1, EGFR and PDGFR to determine their role among GBM tumor core- (c-CSC) vs. peritumor tissue-derived cancer stem cells (p-CSC) of six cases of GBM. Notch inhibition significantly impaired cell growth of c-CSC compared to p-CSC pools, with no effects observed in cell cycle distribution, apoptosis and cell invasion assays. Instead, anti-EGFR therapy induced cell cycle arrest, sometimes associated with apoptosis and reduction of cell invasiveness in GBM CSC. In two cases, c-CSC pools were more sensitive to simultaneous anti-Notch and anti-EGFR treatment than either therapy alone compared to p-CSC, which were mostly resistant to treatment. We reported the overexpression of PDGFRα and its up-regulation following anti-EGFR therapy in GBM p-CSC compared to c-CSC. RNA interference of PDGFRα significantly reduced cell proliferation rate of p-CSC, while its pharmacological inhibition with Crenolanib impaired survival of both CSC pools, whose effects in combination with EGFR inhibition were maximized. CONCLUSIONS: We have used different drugs combination to identify the more effective therapeutic targets for GBM CSC, particularly against GBM peritumor tissue-derived CSC, which are mostly resistant to treatments. Overall, our results provide the rationale for simultaneous targeting of EGFR and PDGFR, which would be beneficial in the treatment of GBM.

Deep Sequencing the microRNA profile in rhabdomyosarcoma reveals down-regulation of miR-378 family members.

BACKGROUND: Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a highly malignant tumour accounting for nearly half of soft tissue sarcomas in children. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a class of short, non-coding, regulatory RNAs which play a critical role in different cellular processes. Altered miRNA levels have been reported in human cancers, including RMS. METHODS: Using deep sequencing technology, a total of 685 miRNAs were investigated in a group of alveolar RMSs (ARMSs), embryonal RMSs (ERMSs) as well as in normal skeletal muscle (NSM). Q-PCR, MTT, cytofluorimetry, migration assay, western blot and immunofluorescence experiments were carried out to determine the role of miR-378a-3p in cancer cell growth, apoptosis, migration and differentiation. Bioinformatics pipelines were used for miRNA target prediction and clustering analysis. RESULTS: Ninety-seven miRNAs were significantly deregulated in ARMS and ERMS when compared to NSM. MiR-378 family members were dramatically decreased in RMS tumour tissue and cell lines. Interestingly, members of the miR-378 family presented as a possible target the insulin-like growth factor receptor 1 (IGF1R), a key signalling molecule in RMS. MiR-378a-3p over-expression in an RMS-derived cell line suppressed IGF1R expression and affected phosphorylated-Akt protein levels. Ectopic expression of miR-378a-3p caused significant changes in apoptosis, cell migration, cytoskeleton organization as well as a modulation of the muscular markers MyoD1, MyoR, desmin and MyHC. In addition, DNA demethylation by 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dC) was able to up-regulate miR-378a-3p levels with a concomitant induction of apoptosis, decrease in cell viability and cell cycle arrest in G2-phase. Cells treated with 5-aza-dC clearly changed their morphology and expressed moderate levels of MyHC. CONCLUSIONS: MiR-378a-3p may function as a tumour suppressor in RMS and the restoration of its expression would be of therapeutic benefit in RMS. Furthermore, the role of epigenetic modifications in RMS deserves further investigations.