Identification of Leukemia-Associated Immunophenotypes by Databaseguided Flow Cytometry Provides a Highly Sensitive and Reproducible Strategy for the Study of Measurable Residual Disease in Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia

Abstract

Background: Multiparametric Flow Cytometry (MFC) is an essential tool to study the involved cell lineages, the aberrant differentiation/maturation patterns and the expression of aberrant antigens in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The characterization of leukemia-associated immunophenotypes (LAIPs) at the moment of diagnosis is critical to establish reproducible strategies for the study of measurable residual disease using MFC (MFC-MRD). Methods: In this study, we identify and characterize LAIPs by comparing the leukemic populations of 145 AML patients, using the EuroFlow AML/ MDS MFC panel, with six databases of normal myeloid progenitors (MPCs). Principal component analysis was used to identify and characterize the LAIPs, which were then used to generate individual profiles for MFC-MRD monitoring. Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between the expression patterns of LAIPs and the different subtypes of AML. The MFC-MRD study was performed by identifying residual AML populations that matched with the LAIPs at diagnosis. To further validate this approach, the presence of MRD was also assessed by qPCR (qPCR-MRD). Finally, we studied the association between MFC-MRD and progression-free survival (PFS). Results: The strategy used in this study allowed us to describe more than 300 different LAIPs and facilitated the association of specific phenotypes with certain subtypes of AML. The MFC-MRD monitoring based on LAIPs with good/strong specificity was applicable to virtually all patients and showed a good correlation with qPCR-MRD and PFS. Conclusions: The described methodology provides an objective method to identify and characterize LAIPs. Furthermore, it provides a theoretical basis to develop highly sensitive MFC-MRD strategies.

Exploring the interplay between microRNA expression and DNA mutation analysis in AML patients

“…Meanwhile, MPO, CD38, CD36, CD15, CD34, CD11b, and CD2 exhibited expression levels between 24.48 % and 45.06 %, with the remaining CD markers showing expression levels below 20 % in all cases. These findings were consistent with previous studies on AML ( Rasheed et al, 2021 , Piñero et al, 2022 ). Previous researchers noted that markers such as MPO, CD13, CD33, CD15, and CD117 are specific to myeloid cells, while CD11c, CD64, CD14, and CD36 indicate monocytic lineage.…”

Immunophenotypic clustering in paediatric acute myeloid leukaemia

“…LAIP involves four aspects: cross-lineage antigen expression, asynchronous expression, antigen over or under-expression, and ectopic antigen expression. [36][37][38] Through unsupervised immunophenotypic clustering, we delineated five overt immunological patterns in paediatric AML (Figure 1 and Figure S2). Cluster 1 was characterized by the overexpression of megakaryocyte or platelet hallmarks CD41 and CD61, [39][40][41] corresponding to the dominant FAB type, AML-M7.…”

Novel Tools for Diagnosis and Monitoring of AML

“…Recently, some publications have addressed the standardization of MRD analysis by MFC in order to improve the inter-rater reliability between investigators [ 31 , 33 ]. Furthermore, automated analysis tools are being developed to achieve unbiased results [ 34 , 35 , 36 ]. With standardized assays, deeper sensitivity thresholds will probably be accepted for clinical use in the future.…”