Prognosis biomarkers evaluation in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Objective/background: From clinical and biological points of view, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a heterogeneous disease characterized by a progressive accumulation of lymphocytes in the peripheral blood, bone marrow, and lymphoid organs. New prognostic markers in CLL may be useful to clinicians for predicting outcome and in clinical decision-making. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential prognostic value of the apoptotic/survival-controlling proteins and protein tyrosine kinase ZAP-70 gene expression in CLL patients and control individuals, correlating such findings with patients' clinical data.

Methods: Fifty-three patients diagnosed with CLL attending the hematology service of a clinical hospital, and 24 healthy individuals with no history of leukemia (Control group) were enrolled in this study. Analyses of apoptotic/survival-controlling proteins were performed by western blot and ZAP-70 gene expression was evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Results: Significant differences were observed for the p-p38, Mcl-1 long, and Mcl-1 short proteins when patients were compared with CLL and controls. A positive correlation between the results for Mcl-1 short and Mcl-1 long and lymphocyte count was observed, corroborating the hypothesis of an imbalance between proteins of cell survival pathways/apoptosis in CLL.

Conclusion: ZAP-70 gene expression was not detected as a discriminant biomarker in these CLL patients. An imbalance between apoptosis-related proteins was observed in the present study, corroborating the hypothesis of increased survival of lymphocytes in CLL patients.