Genes, Vol. 12, Pages 1632: Telomerase (hTERT) Overexpression Reveals a Promising Prognostic Biomarker and Therapeutical Target in Different Clinical Subtypes of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

Genes, Vol. 12, Pages 1632: Telomerase (hTERT) Overexpression Reveals a Promising Prognostic Biomarker and Therapeutical Target in Different Clinical Subtypes of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Genes doi: 10.3390/genes12101632 Authors: Beatriz Maria Dias Nogueira Laudreísa da Costa Pantoja Emerson Lucena da Silva Fernando Augusto Rodrigues Mello Júnior Eliel Barbosa Teixeira Alayde Vieira Wanderley Jersey Heitor da Silva Maués Manoel Odorico de Moraes Filho Maria Elisabete Amaral de Moraes Raquel Carvalho Montenegro André Salim Khayat Caroline Aquino Moreira-Nunes Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is a neoplasm of the hematopoietic system defined as a clonal expansion of an abnormal lymphoid precursor cell. It mostly affects children under five years of age and is the most common tumor to afflict pediatric patients. The expression of the human telomerase gene (hTERT) in patients with ALL has been studied as a biomarker and could become a new therapeutic target. We evaluate the role of hTERT gene expression in ALL pediatric patients, through quantitative real-time PCR technique, and the possible correlation between hTERT expression and clinical variables: gender, age, white blood cells (WBC), gene fusions, and immunophenotyping. The analysis between healthy controls and ALL patients (N = 244) was statistically significant (p < 0.001), demonstrating hTERT overexpression in these patients. In comparison with the usual set of ...
Source: Genes - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research