Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Abnormalities in the control of apoptosis play an important role in leukemogenesis. Survivin is a member of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins family, it prevents apoptosis by blocking caspase activity and play a role in cell proliferation. While, cyclin E2 is one of the cyclins proteins family that controls progression of cell cycle by activation of cyclin dependant-kinase.
OBJECTIVE:
Was to assess survivin and cyclin E2 genes expression in acute leukemia (AL) patients, and to define their role in the susceptibility of AL, and their correlation with the clinical presentation, laboratory findings, as well as treatment outcome.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
This study included 60 de novo AL patients and 40 control subjects to study the expression of survivin and cyclin E2 genes using RT-PCR.
RESULTS:
Survivin and cyclin E2 genes expression was significantly higher in leukemic patients compared with control subjects (P< 0.001), both genes separately were associated with increased risk of leukemia development and treatment failure (P< 0.01). Moreover, when combining the 2 genes expression, a significant elevation of the risk of leukemia and treatment failure was found (P < 0.01).
CONCLUSIONS:
Survivin and cyclin E2 genes expression may have clinical relevance and can be considered as molecular risk factors for AL. Also they may be useful as predictive markers for treatment outcome in leukemic patients.