title: High level expression of N-acetylgluosamine-6-O-sulfotransferase is characteristic of a subgroup of paediatric precursor-B acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
abstract: Microarray analysis is a powerful technology, but its impact on routine diagnosis for the near future maybe in revealing individual genes, which are useful diagnostic markers. Recently microarray analysis has identified a novel subgroup of childhood precursor-B acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) from a unique gene expression profile of over 30 genes. We have evaluated the four most highly expressed genes from this profile, by quantitative real time RT-PCR, to determine whether any of these genes by itself could be useful as a diagnostic indicator. The levels of expression of N-acetylglucosamine-6-O-sulfotransferase (GN6ST), protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor M (PTPRmu), G protein-coupled receptor 49 (HG38) and KIAA1099 protein were determined in childhood precursor-B ALL samples from a cohort of 116 Indian patients. In nine cases, three or four of these genes exhibited very high expression levels, but only GN6ST was consistently over-expressed. We suggest that very high level expression of GN6ST is a useful diagnostic marker for a subgroup of previously unclassified ALL.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre at KFNCCCR, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Georgina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Timson
authors.forename: Sri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Banavali
authors.forename: Marina I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Gutierrez
authors.forename: Iain
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Magrath
authors.forename: Kishor G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Bhatia
authors.forename: Malcolm H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Goyns
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017931:DNA Primers; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000201:enzymology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015238:Sulfotransferases / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D000097811:Carbohydrate Sulfotransferases
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D015238:Sulfotransferases; D000097811:Carbohydrate Sulfotransferases