Detection Of PRAME Gene Expresion In Leukemias And Its Clinical Implications

Objective:To investigate the expression of PRAME in all types of lecukemias and its implications for monitoring minimal residual disease in acute leukemiasMethods:The expression of PRAME gene was detected in 62 patients with acute leukemia and 8 normal subjects by semi-quantitative RT-PCR,using β-actin as internal reference.Long-term follow-up monitoring of PRAME expression of peripheral blood or bone marrow was performed for 5 patients with acute leukemia. Statistics were performed by using SAS8.0 softwareResults:The expression of PRAME in 8 normal subjects was all negtive.We could not find significant difference in the paired peripheral blood and bone marrow samples from 10 newly diagnosed acute leukemia patients with respect to the expression of PRAME gene .PRAME gene was correlated with MICM subtype and patients with M2 or M3 seemly have higher positive percentage than others.No association was found between PRAME expression and gender and initial leukocyte count.Patients with PRAME expression had a significantly higher complete remission rate and better overall survival.Long-term follow-up detection the expression of PRAME in peripheral blood or bone marrow samples from 5 patient with acute leukemia , 1 case relapsed after complete remission has been achieved for 6 months.In the relapsed patients, the expression of PRAME had increased obviously about 1 month before clinical relapse became apparent .There was no obvious change of PRAME expression level at any point of treatment in one chemoresistant to induction treatment patient.Conclusion: PRAME gene may be used to judge the effect of chemotherapy and prognosis.Monitoring the expression of PRAME gene with semi-quantitative RT-PCR method may be useful for detecting minimal residual disease and subsequent relapse ,especially in patients without known genetic markers.