title: Expression analysis of BECN1 in acute myeloid leukemia: association with distinct cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In acute myeloid leukemia (AML), it has been shown that AML-derived cells often remain sensitive to autophagy-inducing stimuli, leading to the idea that harnessing the autophagy can be pertinent to AML cytotoxic therapy. Despite this promising notion, to date, there is no comprehensive study addressing autophagy-related genes expression status in AML. As a critical mediator, BECN1 influences the onset and advance of autophagy and several studies have pointed to the BECN1 recurrent allelic deletion and expression variation in a broad range of tumors. To explore this caveat, we chose this alteration-prone gene to investigate in our study.
  
  
  METHODS
  We have analyzed the expression status of BECN1 in a series of 128 de novo AML patients using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In our favorable subgroup, BECN1 expression did not alter (P = 0.301), but in intermediate and unfavorable patients, we have had BECN1 low expression compared to the normal controls (P = 0.008 and P < 0.001, respectively). We found evidence for the association of reduced expression of BECN1 with FLT3-ITD mutation (19 of 27 patients), monosomal karyotype (all of 11 patients), higher age, and WBC count.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, remarkable association of reduced expression of BECN1 with FLT3-ITD mutation and monosomal karyotype and their functional relationship is interesting which should be addressed and verified in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zare-Abdollahi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Safari
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Movafagh
authors.affiliation: Department of Hemato-Oncology, Taleghani Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghadiani
authors.affiliation: Department of Hemato-Oncology, Taleghani Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tabarraee
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Determinants of Health, National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Riazi-Isfahani
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gorji
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, South PNU Centre, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Keyvan
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Cardiovascular Research Center, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gachkar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000071186:Beclin-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D001853:Bone Marrow; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D005260:Female; D020440:Gene Duplication; D015870:Gene Expression; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation; D011379:Prognosis; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences; D055815:Young Adult; D051941:fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3 / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: C491997:BECN1 protein, human; D000071186:Beclin-1; C497970:FLT3 protein, human; D051941:fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3
keywords: AML; Acute leukemia; bone marrow culture; cytogenetics; genetics; leukemia