Evaluating the expression of key genes involved in resistance to oxidative stress in ALL patients

Leukemia accounts for about 8% of all cancers and causes approximately 7% of mortalities due to malignancies. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer and rare in older subjects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of oxidative stress resistance genes including Catalase, manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), Forkhead Box O3 (Foxo3a), and sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) in ALL patients that may be applied for therapeutic purposes in the future.

In this observational case-control study, blood samples were drawn from 60 newly diagnosed ALL patients and 10 healthy individuals as a control group. After RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification was performed using specific primers for evaluating the expression of Catalase, MnSOD, Foxo3a, and SIRT1 genes.

The expression of all studied genes were significantly higher in ALL patients than in the control group; catalase gene, FOX gene, MnSOD gene, and SIRT1 gene were expressed 4 times (p =0.04), 4.5 times (p =0.001), 2.2 times (p =0.05) and 4.8 (p =0.01) times higher than healthy individuals in the control group respectively. However, no significant relationship between their expression and the stage of the disease and blast percentage was demonstrated (P>0.05).

According to these results, the authors believe that the pathways involved in oxidative stress may be one of the most important causes of ALL diseasechr('39')s development and progression. In this regard, targeting the critical genes of these pathways can be considered a potential treatment with fewer side effects.