Correlation of preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) gene expression with clinical characteristics in acute leukemia patients

Nagaraj V Kulkarni; Reshma A Shetty; Suchetha Kumari N; Vijith V Shetty; Rajesh Krishna; Meenakshi Arumugam; Akanksha A Kalal; Prashanth Shetty

doi:10.1186/s43141-022-00376-7

Correlation of preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) gene expression with clinical characteristics in acute leukemia patients

J Genet Eng Biotechnol. 2022 Jul 5;20(1):97. doi: 10.1186/s43141-022-00376-7.

Authors

Nagaraj V Kulkarni¹, Reshma A Shetty¹, Suchetha Kumari N², Vijith V Shetty³, Rajesh Krishna⁴, Meenakshi Arumugam¹, Akanksha A Kalal¹, Prashanth Shetty⁵

Affiliations

¹ Central Research Laboratory, KSHEMA Centre for Genetic Services, KS Hegde Medical Academy, NITTE (Deemed to be) University, Derlakatte, Mangalore, Karnataka, 575 018, India.
² Department of Biochemistry, KS Hegde Medical Academy, NITTE (Deemed to be) University, Nityanandanagar, Deralakatte, Mangalore, Karnataka, 575 018, India.
³ Department of Medical Oncology, KS Hegde Medical Academy, NITTE (Deemed to be University), Derlakatte, Mangalore, Karnataka, 575 018, India.
⁴ Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, Yenepoya (Deemed to be) University, Nityanandanagar, Deralakatte, Mangalore, Karnataka, 575 018, India.
⁵ Central Research Laboratory, KSHEMA Centre for Genetic Services, KS Hegde Medical Academy, NITTE (Deemed to be) University, Derlakatte, Mangalore, Karnataka, 575 018, India. dprashanthshetty@gmail.com.

Abstract

Background: Preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) gene is regularly overexpressed in acute leukemia (AL) and other malignant diseases which are recognized by human leucocyte antigen (HLA-24) located in the human chromosome of 22q11 coded by 509 amino acids. To rule out the PRAME gene expression in AL patients and its correlation with clinical characteristics in the Indian population set up by RT-qPCR.

Results: A total of 42 samples collected, 29 (69.4%) were males, and 13 (30.95%) were females, with a mean and standard deviation for age were 39.07 ± 22.22 years. Of which AML were of 22 (52.38%) cases, ALL were of 14 (33.33%) cases, and 6 (14.2%) cases which included other forms of leukemia. PRAME gene expression was highly expressed in thirty-three 27 (64.28%) AL patients compared to the least expression in healthy individuals. No significant difference between the different forms of AL (p=0.3203) was observed. Cytogenetic analysis of normal karyotype (NK), abnormal karyotype (Ab. K), and culture failure (CF) displayed statistical non-significance (p=0.5801). Among cytogenetic abnormalities obtained, no significant differences between the groups were observed (p=0.8507). Chloride, potassium, and absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) was found to be statistically significant with p=0.0038**, p=0.0358*, and p=0.0216*, respectively, between all other clinical characteristics. There was no correlation between the PRAME gene expression and clinical parameters.

Conclusion: PRAME gene expression in AL patients was highly expressed, comparable to studies reported globally with significant cytogenetic results. PRAME gene could be used as a potential diagnostic marker for monitoring the malignancies and minimal residual disease in AL.

Keywords: Acute leukemia; Cytogenetics; Preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME); Reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).