RESUMO
Recurrent molecular markers have been routinely used in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) for risk assessment at diagnosis, whereas their post-induction monitoring still represents a debated issue. We evaluated the prognostic value and biological impact of minimal residual disease (MRD) and of the allelic ratio (AR) of FLT3-internal-tandem duplication (ITD) in childhood AML. We retrospectively screened 494 children with de novo AML for FLT3-ITD mutation, identifying 54 harboring the mutation; 51% of them presented high ITD-AR at diagnosis and had worse event-free survival (EFS, 19.2 versus 63.5% for low ITD-AR, <0.05). Forty-one percent of children with high levels of MRD after the 1st induction course, measured by a patient-specific real-time-PCR, had worse EFS (22.2 versus 59.4% in low-MRD patients, P<0.05). Next, we correlated these parameters with gene expression, showing that patients with high ITD-AR or persistent MRD had characteristic expression profiles with deregulated genes involved in methylation and acetylation. Moreover, patients with high CyclinA1 expression presented an unfavorable EFS (20.3 versus 51.2% in low CyclinA1 group, P<0.01). Our results suggest that ITD-AR levels and molecular MRD should be considered in planning clinical management of FLT3-ITD patients. Different transcriptional activation of epigenetic and oncogenic profiles may explain variability in outcome among these patients, for whom novel therapeutic approaches are desirable.
Assuntos
Leucemia Mieloide Aguda/diagnóstico , Leucemia Mieloide Aguda/genética , Tirosina Quinase 3 Semelhante a fms/genética , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Intervalo Livre de Doença , Epigênese Genética/genética , Regulação Leucêmica da Expressão Gênica , Humanos , Neoplasia Residual/genética , Prognóstico , Estudos RetrospectivosAssuntos
Protocolos de Quimioterapia Combinada Antineoplásica/uso terapêutico , Leucemia Mieloide Aguda/tratamento farmacológico , Leucemia Mieloide Aguda/genética , Complexo de Proteínas Formadoras de Poros Nucleares/genética , Asparaginase/uso terapêutico , Biomarcadores Tumorais/genética , Ciclofosfamida/uso terapêutico , Citarabina/uso terapêutico , Daunorrubicina/uso terapêutico , Regulação para Baixo/genética , Humanos , Mercaptopurina/uso terapêutico , Metotrexato/uso terapêutico , Mutação/genética , Proteínas de Fusão Oncogênica/genética , Prednisona/uso terapêutico , Prognóstico , Translocação Genética/genética , Regulação para Cima/genética , Vincristina/uso terapêuticoRESUMO
cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is frequently overexpressed in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acts as a proto-oncogene; however, it is still debated whether such overactivation alone is able to induce leukemia as its pathogenetic downstream signaling is still unclear. We generated a zebrafish model overexpressing CREB in the myeloid lineage, which showed an aberrant regulation of primitive hematopoiesis, and in 79% of adult CREB-zebrafish a block of myeloid differentiation, triggering to a monocytic leukemia akin the human counterpart. Gene expression analysis of CREB-zebrafish revealed a signature of 20 differentially expressed human homologous CREB targets in common with pediatric AML. Among them, we demonstrated that CREB overexpression increased CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein-δ (C/EBPδ) levels to cause myeloid differentiation arrest, and the silencing of CREB-C/EBPδ axis restored myeloid terminal differentiation. Then, C/EBPδ overexpression was found to identify a subset of pediatric AML affected by a block of myeloid differentiation at monocytic stage who presented a significant higher relapse risk and the enrichment of aggressive signatures. Finally, this study unveils the aberrant activation of CREB-C/EBPδ axis concurring to AML onset by disrupting the myeloid cell differentiation process. We provide a novel in vivo model to perform high-throughput drug screening for AML cure improvement.