Using Gene Arrays to Find CLL Targets for Drugs

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Nucleosides Nucleotides Nucleic Acids. 2006;25(9):1277-81. Links

Purine metabolism in B-cell lymphocytic leukemia: a microarray

approach.

* Marinello E,

* Carlucci F,

* Rosi F,

* Floccari F,

* Raspadori D,

* Tabucchi A.

Department of Internal Medicine, Endocrine-Metabolic Sciences and

Biochemistry, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.

B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) is an adult-onset

highly heterogeneous malignancy characterized by a cells resistance to

apoptosis rather than to highly proliferative cells. In previous

research, we evidenced an imbalance of purine metabolism in B-CLL

cells. Since the extracellular adenosine has been proved to induce

apoptosis via A2b receptor, enzymes involved in adenosine metabolism

could play an important role in apoptosis resistance of B-CLL cells.

We prepared a microarray chip for the analysis of 50 selected genes

that could be of interest in B-CLL: enzymes of purine de-novo, salvage

and catabolic pathway, oxidative stress enzymes, and apoptotis-related

proteins. Preliminary results identify many genes of purine metabolism

that exhibit low or high expression, while genes involved in signal

transduction and apoptosis exhibit lower alterations even if of

remarkable interest.

This application of microarray technique seems promising and at least

a subset of these genes will be valid candidates for further studies.

PMID: 17065106 [PubMed - in process]