title: A comprehensive analysis of breakpoint cluster region-abelson fusion oncogene splice variants in chronic myeloid leukemia and their correlation with disease biology.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  BCR-ABL fusion oncogene is a hallmark of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). It results due to translocation between chromosome 22 and chromosome 9 [t (9; 22)(q34; q11)]. It gives rise to translation of a 210 KDa chimeric protein (p210), leading to enhanced tyrosine kinase activity and activation of leukemogenic pathways, ultimately causing onset of CML. In case of CML, the classic fusions are b2a2 or b3a2, fusing exon 13 (b2) or exon 14 (b3) of BCR, respectively, to exon 2 (a2) of ABL. The type of BCR-ABL transcripts are thought to be have different prognosis and hence useful in clinical decision-making. The frequencies of different fusion oncogenes associated with leukemia can vary in different ethnic groups and geographical regions due to interplay of genetic variation in different ethnic populations, diverse environmental factors and living style. Moreover, earlier relevant studies from our region were carried out in small subset of patients. Therefore, objective of this study was to find out frequencies of different BCR-ABL splice variants in larger subset of CML patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was established to detect BCR-ABL splice variants in 130 CML patients. Sensitivity of RT-PCR and ability to detect BCR-ABL fusion gene in least possible time was studied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  BCR-ABL detection using our optimized RT-PCR protocol could be completed in 8 hours, starting from RNA extraction to Gel electrophoresis. Sensitivity of RT-PCR assay was of the order of 10(-6). Out of 130 Pakistani patients, 83 (63.84%) expressed b3a2 while 47 (36.15%) expressed b2a2 transcript.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our RT-PCR was proved to be very quick to detect BCR-ABL fusion oncogene in CML patients within one working day. Because of its sensitivity, it can be used to monitor complete molecular response in CML. BCR-ABL RT-PCR and BCR-ABL splice variants frequency in our study differs from other ethnic groups. It shows that ethnic and geographical differences exist in BCR-ABL splice variant frequency, which may have a profound effect on disease biology as well as implications in prognosis and clinical management of BCR-ABL positive leukemias.
authors: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Medical Genetics and Hematology/Oncology, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, National Guard Health Affairs, Mail Code 3129, Riyadh 11426, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ; Department of Hematology, Oncology and Pharmaco-genetic Engineering Sciences (HOPES) group, Health Sciences/Parasitology Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan ; Department of Biotechnology, Next-Generation Medical Biotechnology Division, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan.
authors: Zafar
authors: Z
authors: Iqbal
keywords: b2a2; b3a2; breakpoint cluster region-abelson; breakpoint cluster region-abelson alternative splicing