By performing computational target prediction, luciferase reporter system, and mutagenesis assays; five candidate miRNAs (miR-101, miR-520d-5p, miR-140-5p, miR-448 and miR-485-5p) were found to directly target TAL1. Of these five targets, four miRNAs (miR-101, miR-140-5p, miR-448 and miR-485-5p) were downregulated in T-ALL patient specimens and T-ALL cell lines [55]. Here, TAL1 is linked to acute lymphoblastic leukemia.