We decided to focus on miR-377 for two reasons: (i) the prediction analysis identified two complementary sequences in the 3’-UTR of BCL-xL mRNA that miR-377 is likely to base-pair with (Additional file 1: Figure S1A), thus suggesting that it is a potential target, and (ii) miR-377 is located at 14q32, the deleted chromosome 14 region that has been described in B-cell lymphomas [33], suggesting that miR-377 may function as a tumor suppresser gene. This evidence concerns the gene BCL2L1 and B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.