Treatment with Hydroxyurea Leads to Fetal Hemoglobin Reactivation through and Genes: An Study.

Hydroxyurea (HU) is an effective drug to increase fetal γ-globin gene (Hb F) expression, replacing the missing adult β-globin gene. The mechanism of Hb F induction by HU and improvement in clinical symptoms are still poorly understood. The current study aimed to improve the molecular understanding of drug-induced alterations and reveals genes related to HU treatment responsiveness in β-thalassemia (β-thal). We analyzed the GSE109186 dataset using system biology and weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify and quantify gene expression changes reflected in the HU-treated human erythroblastic leukemia cells. The K562 cell line was treated in 50, 100, and 150 µM concentrations of HU for 24, 48, and 72 hours with three replications. The alteration of , and Hb F gene expression in HU-treated cells was evaluated using the real-time polymerase chain (real-time PCR) technique. The results showed that has an increase of 4.27-fold on the first day of HU-treatment in 50 µM ( < 0.01). The expression showed a decrease at all times and doses of treatment, and the most decrease happened in 48 hours and 50 µM ( < 0.04). Hb F also showed the highest increase in 100 µM after 24 hours of treatment (5.18-fold). In summary, the data suggest that alteration of and gene expression is associated with γ-globin increasing in HU-treated cells.