Rebecca Kohnken, Karthik M. Kodigepalli, Anjali Mishra, Pierluigi Porcu, Li Wu

Sézary syndrome (SS) is a rare subtype of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) that is characterized by aggressive spread of neoplastic CD4+ T-cells from the skin into the bloodstream with metastasis to visceral organs. The deoxynucleoside triphosphohydrolase SAMHD1 is highly expressed in normal CD4+ T-cells, while its expression is down-regulated in CD4+ T-cells from SS patients. MicroRNA (miR) dysregulation is an important epigenetic mechanism in the pathogenesis and progression of SS. MiR-181 has been shown to inhibit SAMHD1 expression in cell lines and was identified as an important prognostic biomarker in CTCL. However, whether SAMHD1 is down-regulated by miR-181 in primary CD4+ T-cells of SS patients is unknown. Compared to normal CD4+ T-cells, SAMHD1 protein expression is significantly reduced in transformed CD4+ T-cell lines and CD4+ T-cells from SS patients, which inversely correlates with increased miR-181 levels in these cells. Over-expression of miR-181b in primary CD4+ T-cells from healthy donors significantly decreased SAMHD1 protein level, but not mRNA level. In contrast, inhibition of miR-181 in a CD4+ T-cell line significantly increased the level of SAMHD1 protein expression. Our results demonstrate that miR-181 is an important regulator of SAMHD1 protein expression in neoplastic CD4+ T-cells, likely through a mechanism of translational inhibition.