Specific point mutations that activate v-abl are not found in Philadelphia-negative chronic myeloid leukaemia, Philadelphia-negative acute lymphoblastic leukaemia or blast transformation of chronic myeloid leukaemia
Melo, J.V.; Goldman, J.M.
Leukemia 6(8): 786-790
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0887-6924 PMID: 1353550 Document Number: 388064
The involvement of the BCR/ABL fusion gene in patients with Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome positive chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is well characterised, but the molecular events underlying the cases of Ph-negative CML and ALL that lack BCR gene involvement and those that cause transformation of Ph-positive CML are unknown. The murine ABL gene can be activated by genetic events that do not involve the BCR gene, including the introduction of two specific point mutatations in exons VII and XI respectively, as found in the homologous sequence of the v-abl oncogenes. We therefore sought evidence for analogous point mutations in the ABL gene in patients with Ph-negative, BCR-negative CML (n = 25), Ph-negative ALL (n = 18) and in Ph-positive CML in transformation (n = 28). We used restriction fragment length polymorphism and single strand conformational polymorphism techniques to analyse DNA amplified fragments of selected ABL coding regions from leukaemia cells. We identified only normal wild-type DNA sequences. The absence of these transforming point mutations does not exclude the possibility that the ABL gene in such patients could be activated by other means.