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Neuroblastoma (NB) is a type of peripheral sympathetic nervous system cancer that most commonly affects children. It is caused by the improper differentiation of primitive neural crest cells during embryonic development. Although NB occurs for 8% of paediatric cancers, it accounts for 15% of cancer-related deaths. Despite a considerable increase in cytotoxic chemo- and radiotherapy, patients in advanced stages remain virtually incurable. Therefore, there is a desperate necessity for new treatment strategies to be investigated. Accumulating evidence suggested that microRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs with 19-25 nucleotides lengths and play a central role in the development of NB carcinogenesis. Fascinatingly, miRNA inhibitors have an antisense property that can inhibit miRNA function and suppress the activity of mature miRNA. However, many studies have addressed miRNA inhibition in the treatment of NB, but their molecular mechanisms and signalling pathways are yet to be analysed. In this study, we impart the current state of knowledge about the role of miRNA inhibition in the aetiology of NB.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in development, differentiation, and homeostasis by regulating protein translation. In B-cell lymphoma, many miRNAs have altered expression levels, and for a limited subset of them, experimental data supports their functional relevance in lymphoma pathogenesis. This chapter describes an unbiased next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based high-throughput screening approach to identify miRNAs that are involved in the control of cell growth. First, we provide a protocol for performing high-throughput screening for miRNA inhibition and overexpression. Second, we describe the procedure for next-generation sequencing library preparation. Third, we provide a workflow for data analysis.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non coding RNAs that regulate the gene expression and play a relevant role in physiopathological mechanisms such as development, proliferation, death, and differentiation of normal and cancer cells. Recently, abnormal expression of miRNAs has been reported in most of solid or hematopoietic malignancies, including multiple myeloma (MM), where miRNAs have been found deeply dysregulated and act as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Presently, the most recognized approach for definition of miRNA portraits is based on microarray profiling analysis. We here describe a workflow based on the identification of dysregulated miRNAs in plasma cells from MM patients based on Affymetrix technology. We describe how it is possible to search miRNA putative targets performing whole gene expression profile on MM cell lines transfected with miRNA mimics or inhibitors followed by luciferase reporter assay to analyze the specific targeting of the 3'untranslated region (UTR) sequence of a mRNA by selected miRNAs. These technological approaches are suitable strategies for the identification of relevant druggable targets in MM.