A Prognostic and Predictive Study of BCR-ABL Expression Based on Characterization of Fusion Transcripts

Abstract

BCR-ABL translocation is a key hallmark of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). The chemistry involves transcription of a novel 8.5 kb mRNA with a b3a2 and/ or b2a2 junction. Though there is an improvement in survival using the TKIs, there are causes for the treatment failures. Thus, the study focuses on the causes underlying the failed response. This study comprises BCR-ABL expression in correlation with age, gender and transcript type and disease monitoring in follow-up samples. Eighty-seven chronic phase CML patients were enrolled in the study. Out of these 24 patients were followed further. Quantitative Real time PCR was performed to assess the BCR-ABL expression followed by gel electrophoresis of PCR products. The results were expressed as CN/lg RNA. The results obtained were correlated with SPSS 16.0 software. We found three different types of the expression that includes b2a2, b3a2 and co-expression (b2a2 ? b3a2). Higher incidence of b2a2 with a relatively equal incidence of coexpression was observed. The BCR-ABL expression was higher in males, in young patients and in those exhibiting co-expression of the transcripts. Greater relapse was seen in females and in older patients. The patients with co-expression of transcripts exhibited the highest expression; however these patients showed the best treatment response suggest the co-expression is the favourable parameter for CML patients. The transcript type and BCR-ABL expression are well correlated and hence can be considered as a prognostic as well as the predictive indicator considering the BCR-ABL expression for CML patients.

Exploring the Role of Seven Key Genes in Breast Cancer: Insights from In Silico and In Vitro Analyses

“…Moreover, the in silico methodology can help prioritize genes or pathways for further validation or intervention, as well as identify potential biomarkers or therapeutic targets. 24, 25 Several previous studies have used similarly in silico methodologies to investigate BC at different levels, such as gene expression, copy number variation, methylation, microRNA or long noncoding RNA. For example, Dashti et al 26 used a system biology strategy to identify key genes and signaling pathways in BC based on gene expression data from two microarray datasets.…”

Chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia: Incidence of BCR/ABL transcript and its correlation with presenting features, response to treatment, and survival

“…In some cases, there is a co-expression of these transcripts due to alternative splicing (b2a2+b3a2). Less frequently, the BCR breakpoint occur in exon 19 resulting in e19a2 transcript, which codes for p230 protein, and more rarely in exon 1 generating e1a2 transcript coding for p190 protein [3] .…”