Clinical and molecular biological characterization of patients with accelerated chronic lymphocytic leukemia / 中华血液学杂志

Objective: To investigate the clinical and molecular biological characteristics of patients with accelerated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (aCLL) . Methods: From January 2020 to October 2022, the data of 13 patients diagnosed with aCLL at The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University were retrospectively analyzed to explore the clinical and molecular biological characteristics of aCLL. Results: The median age of the patients was 54 (35-72) years. Prior to aCLL, five patients received no treatment for CLL/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), while the other patients received treatment, predominantly with BTK inhibitors. The patients were diagnosed with aCLL through pathological confirmation upon disease progression. Six patients exhibited bulky disease (lesions with a maximum diameter ≥5 cm). Positron emission tomography (PET) -computed tomography (CT) images revealed metabolic heterogeneity, both between and within lesions, and the median maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the lesion with the most elevated metabolic activity was 6.96 (2.51-11.90). Patients with unmutated IGHV CLL accounted for 76.9% (10/13), and the most frequent genetic and molecular aberrations included +12 [3/7 (42.9% ) ], ATM mutation [6/12 (50% ) ], and NOTCH1 mutation [6/12 (50% ) ]. Twelve patients received subsequent treatment. The overall response rate was 91.7%, and the complete response rate was 58.3%. Five patients experienced disease progression, among which two patients developed Richter transformation. Patients with aCLL with KRAS mutation had worse progression-free survival (7.0 month vs 26.3 months, P=0.015) . Conclusion: Patients with aCLL exhibited a clinically aggressive course, often accompanied by unfavorable prognostic factors, including unmutated IGHV, +12, ATM mutation, and NOTCH1 mutation. Patients with CLL/SLL with clinical suspicion of disease progression, especially those with bulky disease and PET-CT SUVmax ≥5, should undergo biopsy at the site of highest metabolic uptake to establish a definitive pathological diagnosis.

EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 Targets p53 Gene: Potential Role in Epstein-BarrVirus Associated Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia / Journal of the Korean Cancer Association, 대한암학회지

Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to investigate the prognostic impact of Epstein-Barr virus(EBV)–microRNA (miRNA, miR)-BHRF1-1 with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) as wellas role of EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 in p53 gene. @*Materials and Methods@#Quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction and western blotting wereused to quantify EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 and p53 expression in cultured CLL. @*Results@#p53 aberration was associated with the higher expression level of EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 (p <0.001) which was also an independent prognostic marker for overall survival (p=0.028;hazard ratio, 5.335; 95% confidence interval, 1.193 to 23.846) in 97 newly-diagnosed CLLpatients after adjusted with International Prognostic Index for patients with CLL. We identifiedEBV-miR-BHRF1-1 as a viral miRNA regulator of p53. EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 repressedluciferase reporter activity by specific interaction with the seed region within the p53 3-untranslated region. Discordance of p53 messenger RNA and protein expression wasassociated with high EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 levels in CLL patients and cell lines. EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 inhibition upregulated p53 protein expression, induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosisand decreased cell proliferation in cell lines. EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 mimics downregulated p53protein expression, decreased cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and induced cell proliferationin cell lines. @*Conclusion@#This study supported the role of EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 in p53 regulation in vitro. Our resultssupport the potential of EBV-miR-BHRF1-1 as a therapeutic target in EBV-associated CLLwith p53 gene aberration.