Ricerc@Sapienza

Recent studies have reported the emerging role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in human cancers. We systematically characterized miRNA expression and editing in the human brain, which displays the highest number of A-to-I RNA editing sites among human tissues, and in de novo glioblastoma brain cancer. We identified 299 miRNAs altered in their expression and 24 miRNAs differently edited in human brain compared to glioblastoma tissues. We focused on the editing site within the miR-589-3p seed. MiR-589-3p is a unique miRNA almost fully edited (?100%) in normal brain and with a consistent editing decrease in glioblastoma. The edited version of miR-589-3p inhibits glioblastoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion, while the unedited version boosts cell proliferation and motility/invasion, thus being a potential cancer-promoting factor. We demonstrated that the editing of this miRNA is mediated by ADAR2, and retargets miR-589-3p from the tumor-suppressor PCDH9 to ADAM12, which codes for the metalloproteinase 12 promoting glioblastoma invasion. Overall, our study dissects the role of a unique brain-specific editing site within miR-589-3p, with important anticancer features, and highlights the importance of RNA editing as an essential player not only for diversifying the genomic message but also for correcting not-tolerable/critical genomic coding sites.