Analysis of miRNA-impact on chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)

The goal of this project is the isolation of new or cell-type specific miRNAs from CLL-lymphomas and the identification of the miRNA target genes. For identification of target genes three different strategies are applied: the most common in-silicio prediction based on several algorithms is complemented by the transcriptome- and proteome-analysis of cells, which overexpress distinct miRNAs (Fig.). Therefore oligo-arrays are utilized for the expression-analysis and mass-spectrometry based quantification approaches via isototype-labelling are applied for proteom-analysis. The differential expression of distinct miRNAs in CLLs is tested for correlation with clinical parameters like prognosis, genomic aberrations, status of surrogate-markers and overall survival. Outstanding candidates of CLL-specific miRNAs will be ectopically expressed in CLL-cells to check for their potential of complementing the pathogen phenotype of CLL cells, like the sensitivity for the induction of apoptosis.