Exploration of human miRNA target genes in neuronal differentiation.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous non-coding RNA molecules that inhibit protein translation in a sequence specific manner. We carried out microarray analyses of 180 human pre-miRNAs in neuroblastoma cell, SH-SY5Y, following stimulation by TPA. Twelve of the pre-miRNAs were up-regulated by the TPA stimulation. We also explored miRNA target genes associated with neuronal differentiation. Some miRNAs have complementarity with 3'UTR of the Notch1 gene, a regulator of neuronal differentiation, and luciferase assay showed that overexpression of these miRNAs reduced the luciferase activity of reporter genes containing the Notch1-3'UTR sequence. Our results suggest that miRNAs can be associated with TPA induced signalling pathways and expression of Notch1 gene.