The prognostic value and perspectives of the utilization of gene fusions as therapeutic targets are discussed.

BackgroundApproximately 5–20% of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients demonstrate primary resistance or intolerance to imatinib. None of the existing predictive scores gives a good prognosis of TKI efficacy. Gene polymorphisms, expression and microRNAs are known to be involved in the pathogenesis of TKI resistance in CML. The aim of our study is to find new molecular markers of TKI therapy efficacy in CML patients.MethodsNewly diagnosed patients with Ph+ CML in chronic phase were included in this study. Optimal and non-optimal responses to TKI were estimated according to ELN 2013 recommendation. We performed genotyping of selected polymorphisms in 62 blood samples of CML patients, expression profiling of 33 RNA samples extracted from blood and miRNA profiling of 800 miRNA in 12 blood samples of CML patients.ResultsThe frequencies of genotypes at the studied loci did not differ between groups of patients with an optimal and non-optimal response to TKI therapy. Analysis of the expression of 34,681 genes revealed 26 differently expressed genes (p < 0.05) in groups of patients with different TKI responses, but differences were very small and were not confirmed by qPCR. Finally, we did not find difference in miRNA expression between the groups.ConclusionsUsing modern high-throughput methods such as whole-exome sequencing, transcriptome and miRNA analysis, we could not find reliable molecular markers for early prediction of TKI efficiency in Ph+ CML patients.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12920-019-0481-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

MCF-7 breast cancer cells and HBL-100 breast epithelial cells were cultured with N-ethylmaleimide, a blocker of SH groups. Changes in redox potential of the glutathione system, activities of glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, and intensity of apoptotic cell death were evaluated. The results indicate that incubation with N-ethylmaleimide led to glutathione system imbalance, reduced tumor cell redox potential, and induced their programmed death, which seemed useful for prospective target therapy of tumor diseases.

Development of genome editing methods created new opportunities for the development of etiology-based therapies of hereditary diseases. Here, we demonstrate that CRISPR/Cas9 can correct p.F508del mutation in the CFTR gene in the CFTE29o- cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). We used several combinations of Cas9, sgRNA and ssODN and measured editing efficiency in the endogenous CFTR gene and in the co-transfected plasmid containing the CFTR locus with the p.F508del mutation. The non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) frequency in the CFTR gene in the CFTE29o- cells varied from 1.25% to 2.54% of alleles. The best homology-directed repair (HDR) frequency in the endogenous CFTR locus was 1.42% of alleles. In iPSCs, the NHEJ frequency in the CFTR gene varied from 5.5% to 12.13% of alleles. The best HDR efficacy was 2.38% of alleles. Our results show that p.F508del mutation editing using CRISPR/Cas9 in CF patient-derived iPSCs is a relatively rare event and subsequent cell selection and cultivation should be carried out.