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The dysregulation of miRNA expression has been shown to impact cellular physiology and tumorigenesis. Studies have reported several miRNA regulatory elements and pathways that play a significant role in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of hematological malignancies. This is the first study to test the differential expression of miRNAs at crucial stages of the disease, specifically newly diagnosed, resistant to treatment, and remission. Circulating miRNAs extracted from the blood samples of 18 patients diagnosed with leukemia or lymphoma at different stages and 2 healthy controls were quantified by qPCR using a panel of 96 tumorigenic miRNAs. An enrichment analysis was performed to understand the mechanisms through which differential miRNA expression affects cellular and molecular functions. Significant upregulation of hsa-miR-1, hsa-miR-20a-5p, hsa-miR-23a-3p, hsa-miR-92b3p, and hsa-miR-196a-5p was detected among the different stages of leukemia and lymphoma. mir-1 and mir-196a-5p were upregulated in the remission stage of leukemia, while mir-20a-5p, mir-23a-3p, and mir-92b-3p were upregulated during the resistant stage of lymphoma. The enrichment analysis revealed these miRNAs’ involvement in the RAS signaling pathway, TGF-β signaling, and apoptotic pathways, among others. This study highlights new biomarkers that could be used as potential targets for disease diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, therefore enhancing personalized treatments and survival outcomes for patients.

Although most people are infected with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) during their lifetime, only a minority of them develop an EBV-associated malignancy. EBV acts in both direct and indirect ways to transform infected cells into tumor cells. There are multiple ways in which the EBV, host, and tumor environment interact to promote malignant transformation. This paper focuses on some of the mechanisms that EBV uses to transform the tumor microenvironment (TME) of EBV-associated gastric cancer (EBVaGC) for its benefit, including overexpression of Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase 1 (IDO1), synergism between H. pylori and EBV co-infection, and M1 to M2 switch. In this review, we expand on different modalities and combinatorial approaches to therapeutically target this mechanism.