Long non-coding RNAs in B-cell malignancies: a comprehensive overview

// Lucia Nobili 1,* , Domenica Ronchetti 1,* , Elisa Taiana 1 and Antonino Neri 1 1 Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, Università degli Studi di Milano, Hematology, Fondazione Cà Granda IRCCS Policlinico, Milano, Italy * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Antonino Neri, email: // Keywords : long non-coding RNAs; B-cell differentiation; B-cell malignancies; expression profiling; transcription regulation Received : January 10, 2017 Accepted : March 16, 2017 Published : April 20, 2017 Abstract B-cell malignancies constitute a large part of hematological neoplasias. They represent a heterogeneous group of diseases, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma, most non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL), some leukemias and myelomas. B-cell malignancies reflect defined stages of normal B-cell differentiation and this represents the major basis for their classification. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are non-protein-coding transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides, for which many recent studies have demonstrated a function in regulating gene expression, cell biology and carcinogenesis. Deregulated expression levels of lncRNAs have been observed in various types of cancers including hematological malignancies. The involvement of lncRNAs in cancer initiation and progression and their attractive features both as biomarker and for therapeutic research are becoming increasingly evident. In this review, we summarize the recent literature to highlight the status of the knowledge of lncRNAs role in normal B-cell development and in the pathogenesis of B-cell tumors.