Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.10.1 (ERK)
 95,504 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Chromosome translocations involving band 12p13 are known to be involved in a variety of hematologic malignancies, some of them resulting in rearrangement of the ETV6/TEL gene. Applying the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method, we found a cryptic translocation t(12;15)(p13;q25) in an adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patient. Hybridization with cosmid probes showed that the ETV6 gene was rearranged in this translocation. A patient-specific cDNA library was screened with ETV6 cDNA, and a novel fusion transcript was identified between the ETV6 and TRKC/NTRK3 gene located on 15q25. TRKC is a receptor tyrosine kinase that is activated by neurotrophin-3 (NT-3). It is known to be expressed broadly in neural tissues but not in hematologic cells, so far. ETV6-TRKC chimeric transcript encoded the pointed (PNT) domain of the ETV6 gene that fused to the protein-tyrosine kinase (PTK) domain of the TRKC gene. Two types of fusion transcript were determined, one that included the entire PTK domain of TRKC and the other in which the 3'-terminal 462 bp of TRKC was truncated within the PTK domain. Western blot analysis showed the expression of both chimeric proteins of 52 and 38 kD in size. Our results suggest that chimeric PTK expressed in the leukemic cells may contribute to cellular transformation by abnormally activating TRK signaling pathways. Moreover, this is the first report on truncated neurotrophin receptors associated in leukemia.
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PMID:Fusion of ETV6 to neurotrophin-3 receptor TRKC in acute myeloid leukemia with t(12;15)(p13;q25). 994 79

Genomic DNA from 106 cases of adult de novo acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) was screened by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gel electrophoresis for FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations within the juxtamembrane (JM) domain. FLT3 mutations were detected in 14 cases (13.2%) and occurred in FAB types M1 (4 out of 14 cases), M3 (1 out of 10 cases), M4 (5 out of 37 cases) and M5 (4 out of 11 cases). Sequence analysis of four cases with abnormal PCR electrophoretic patterns revealed in frame duplications in the region of exon 11 of between 27 and 111 base pairs. Three are predicted to result in the tandem duplication of adjacent amino acid residues and one to result in a tandem duplication plus insertion of a novel amino acid motif. Statistical analysis showed the FLT3 mutations to be a strong prognostic factor, with patients lacking the mutation surviving significantly longer from diagnosis (mean 29.1 months) than those with an ITD (mean 12.8 months; P = 0.0002). Thirteen of the 14 patients with FLT3 mutations died within 18 months of diagnosis. FLT3 mutations were of prognostic significance in good risk disease (P = 0.04), as well as in patients with standard risk disease (P = 0.0096). This study demonstrates that the FLT3 ITD mutation occurs in a significant percentage of adult AML cases and is an important adverse prognostic factor that appears independent of conventional karyotypic findings.
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PMID:FLT3 internal tandem duplication mutations in adult acute myeloid leukaemia define a high-risk group. 1109 Dec

Constitutive activation of the FLT3 receptor tyrosine kinase, either by internal tandem duplication (ITD) of the juxtamembrane region or by point mutations in the second tyrosine kinase domain (TKD), has been described in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). We analyzed the prevalence and the potential prognostic impact of FLT3 mutations in 979 AML patients. Results were correlated with cytogenetic data and the clinical response. FLT3-ITD mutations were found in 20.4% and FLT3-TKD mutations in 7.7% of the patients. Each mutation was associated with similar clinical characteristics and was more prevalent in patients with normal karyotype. Significantly more FLT3 aberrations were found in patients with FAB M5, and fewer were found in patients with FAB M2 and M6. Although less frequent in patients with cytogenetic aberrations, FLT3-ITDs were found in 13 of 42 patients with t(15;17) and in 9 of 10 patients with t(6;9). The prevalence of the ITD allele on the DNA level was heterogeneous, ranging from faint mutant bands in some patients to predominant mutant bands in others. Based on quantitative analysis, the mutant-wild-type (wt) ratio ranged from 0.03 to 32.56 (median, 0.78). Patients with a high mutant/wt ratio (ie, greater than 0.78) had significantly shorter overall and disease-free survival, whereas survival in patients with ratios below 0.78 did not differ from those without FLT3 aberrations. Multivariate analysis confirmed a high mutant/wt ratio to be a strong independent prognostic factor. Taken together, these data confirm that FLT mutations represent a common alteration in adult AML. Constitutive activation may be associated with monocytoid differentiation. A high mutant/wt ratio in ITD-positive patients appears to have a major impact on the prognostic relevance.
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PMID:Analysis of FLT3-activating mutations in 979 patients with acute myelogenous leukemia: association with FAB subtypes and identification of subgroups with poor prognosis. 1203 58

Mutations of receptor tyrosine kinases are implicated in the constitutive activation and development of human hematologic malignancies. An internal tandem duplication (ITD) of the juxtamembrane domain-coding sequence of the FLT3 gene (FLT3-ITD) is found in 20-25% of adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and at a lower frequency in childhood AML. FLT3-ITD is associated with leukocytosis and a poor prognosis, especially in patients with normal karyotype. Recently, there have been three reports on point mutations at codon 835 of the FLT3 gene (D835 mutations) in adult AML. These mutations are located in the activation loop of the second tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) of FLT3 (FLT3-TKD). The clinical and prognostic relevance of the TKD mutations is less clear. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no report to describe FLT3-TKD mutations in childhood AML. In this pediatric series, FLT3-TKD mutations occurred in three of 91 patients (3.3%), an incidence significantly lower than that of FLT3-ITD (14 of 91 patients, 15.4%) in the same cohort of patients. None of them had both FLT3-TKD and FLT3-ITD mutations. Sequence analysis showed one each of D835 Y, D835 V, and D835 H. Of the three patients carrying FLT3-TKD, two had AML-M3 with one each of L- and V-type PML-RARalpha, and another one had AML-M2 with AML1-ETO. None of our patients with FLT3-TKD had leukocytosis at diagnosis. At bone marrow relapse, one of the four patients examined acquired FLT3-ITD mutation and none gained FLT3-TKD mutation.
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PMID:FLT3-TKD mutation in childhood acute myeloid leukemia. 1275 Jul 1

MLL rearrangements in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) include translocations and intragenic abnormalities such as internal duplication and breakage induced by topoisomerase II inhibitors. In adult AML, FLT3 internal tandem duplications (ITDs) are more common in cases with MLL intragenic abnormalities (33%) than those with MLL translocation (8%). Mutation/deletion involving FLT3 D835 are found in more than 20% of cases with MLL intragenic abnormalities compared with 10% of AML with MLL translocation and 5% of adult AML with normal MLL status. Real-time quantification of FLT3 in 141 cases of AML showed that all cases with FLT3 D835 express high level transcripts, whereas FLT3-ITD AML can be divided into cases with high-level FLT3 expression, which belong essentially to the monocytic lineage, and those with relatively low-level expression, which predominantly demonstrate PML-RARA and DEK-CAN. FLT3 abnormalities in CBF leukemias with AML1-ETO or CBFbeta-MYH11 were virtually restricted to cases with variant CBFbeta-MYH11 fusion transcripts and/or atypical morphology. These data suggest that the FLT3 and MLL loci demonstrate similar susceptibility to agents that modify chromatin configuration, including topoisomerase II inhibitors and abnormalities involving PML and DEK, with consequent errors in DNA repair. Variant CBFbeta-MYH11 fusions and bcr3 PML-RARA may also be initiated by similar mechanisms.
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PMID:FLT3 and MLL intragenic abnormalities in AML reflect a common category of genotoxic stress. 1279 58

FLT3 is a receptor tyrosine kinase involved in the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells. FLT3 internal tandem duplications (FLT3/ITDs) are reported in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and predict poor clinical outcome. We found FLT3/ITDs in 11.5% of 234 children with de novo AML. FLT3/ITD-positive patients were significantly older and had higher percentages of normal cytogenetic findings or French-American-British (FAB) classification M1/M2 and lower percentages of 11q23 abnormalities or FAB M5. FLT3/ITD-positive patients had lower remission induction rates (70% vs 88%; P =.01) and lower 5-year probability rates of event-free survival (pEF) (29% vs 46%; P =.0046) and overall survival (32% vs 58%; P =.037). Patients with high ratios (higher than the median) between mutant and wild-type FLT3 had significantly worse 2-year EFS rates than FLT3/ITD-negative patients (pEFS 20% vs 61%; P =.037), whereas patients with ratios lower than the median did not (pEFS 44% vs 61%; P =.26). FLT3/ITD was the strongest independent predictor for pEFS, with an increase in relative risk for an event of 1.92 (P =.01). Using an MTT (methyl-thiazol-tetrazolium)-based assay, we studied cellular drug resistance on 15 FLT3/ITD-positive and 125 FLT3/ITD-negative AML samples, but we found no differences in cellular drug resistance that could explain the poor outcomes in FLT3/ITD-positive patients. We conclude that FLT3/ITD is less common in pediatric than in adult AML. FLT3/ITD is a strong and independent adverse prognostic factor, and high ratios between mutant and WT-FLT3 further compromise prognosis. However, poor outcomes in FLT3/ITD-positive patients could not be attributed to increased in vitro cellular drug resistance.
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PMID:FLT3 internal tandem duplication in 234 children with acute myeloid leukemia: prognostic significance and relation to cellular drug resistance. 1281 73

Several studies have shown that mutations in the FLT3 gene are common events in AML, with approximately one third of adult patients harbouring either an internal tandem duplication in the juxtramembrane domain or a D835 mutation in the kinase domain. The majority of studies in pediatric and adult AML have shown that FLT3 mutations are powerful prognostic factors predicting for increased relapse risk and adverse overall survival. Some reports have suggested that loss of the wild type allele might be associated with an even worse prognosis. Changes in the pattern of FLT3 mutations between disease presentation and relapse restrict their value as a marker of minimal residual disease, and have significant implications for therapy. The optimum treatment for patients with FLT3 mutations remains unknown and large prospective studies are warranted to evaluate the efficacy of various treatment modalities such as bone marrow transplantation and targeted therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
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PMID:Prognostic implications of the presence of FLT3 mutations in patients with acute myeloid leukemia. 1285 87

Point mutations of D835/I836 of the FLT3 gene have been reported in adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but not in pediatric AML or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). FLT3-D835/I836 mutations were found in 6 (5.4%) of 112 children with ALL older than 1 year and in 8 (16.0%) of 50 infants with ALL. Missense mutations were found in 11 patients, 3-base pair deletions in 2 patients, and a deletion/insertion in 1 patient. Remarkably, FLT3-D835/I836 mutations were found in 8 (18.2%) of 44 infants with ALL with MLL rearrangements and in 4 (21.5%) of 19 patients with hyperdiploid ALL, but they were not found in any patients older than 1 year who had TEL-AML1 (n = 11), E2APBX1 (n = 4), or BCR-ABL (n = 6) fusion genes. Although infant ALL patients with mutations had poorer prognoses than did those without mutations, pediatric ALL patients with mutations who were older than 1 year had good prognoses. We also found FLT3-D835 mutations in 2 of 11 leukemic cell lines with MLL rearrangements. FLT3 was highly phosphorylated in these cell lines with FLT3-D835 mutations, leading to constitutive activation of downstream targets such as signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) without FLT3 ligand stimulation. These results suggested that FLT3-D835/I836 mutations are one of the second genetic events in infant ALL with MLL rearrangements or pediatric ALL with hyperdiploidy.
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PMID:FLT3 mutations in the activation loop of tyrosine kinase domain are frequently found in infant ALL with MLL rearrangements and pediatric ALL with hyperdiploidy. 1450 97

We previously reported that favorable and poor prognostic chromosomal rearrangements in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were associated with distinct levels of HOX expression. We have now analyzed HOX expression in 50 independent adult AML patients (median age=62 years), together with FLT3 and FLT3-ligand mRNA levels, and FLT3 mutation determination. By cluster analysis, we could divide AMLs into cases with low, intermediate and high HOX expression. Cases with high expression were uniquely restricted to a subset of AMLs with intermediate cytogenetics (P=0.0174). This subset has significantly higher levels of FLT3 expression and appears to have an increase of FLT3 mutations (44%), while CEBPalpha mutations were infrequent (6%). FLT3 mRNA levels were correlated with the expression of multiple HOX genes, whereas FLT3 mutations were correlated with HOXB3. In some cases, FLT3 was expressed at levels equivalent to GAPDH in the absence of genomic amplification. We propose that high HOX expression may be characteristically associated with a distinct biologic subset of AML. The apparent global upregulation of HOX expression could be due to growth-factor signaling or, alternatively, these patterns may reflect a particular stage of differentiation of the leukemic cells.
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PMID:Hox expression in AML identifies a distinct subset of patients with intermediate cytogenetics. 1508 54

Pediatric acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) has a poor prognosis, and novel therapies are needed. The FLT3 tyrosine kinase represents a promising target in pediatric AML. FLT3 is constitutively activated either by an internal tandem duplication (ITD) or by a point mutation (PM) in 17% to 24% of pediatric AML cases. Autocrine stimulation of wild-type (WT) FLT3 by coexpressed FLT3 ligand (FL) occurs in many other cases. FLT3/ITD mutations confer a particularly poor prognosis in pediatric AML patients. Inhibitors of FLT3 are being tested in adult AML patients, with promising preliminary results. In this study, cytotoxicity and apoptosis assays were performed on 44 diagnostic pediatric AML blast samples (14 FLT3/WT, 15 FLT3/ITD, 15 FLT3/PM) using CEP-701, a potent and selective FLT3 inhibitor. Pronounced cytotoxicity and induction of apoptosis were observed in a higher percentage of FLT3/ITD samples (93%) than FLT3/PM (27%) or FLT3/WT (29%). The cytotoxicity was greatest in samples with a high FLT3/ITD mutant-to-wild-type allelic ratio. The addition of FL enhanced the survival and augmented the sensitivity to FLT3 inhibition for the CEP-701-responsive subset of FLT3/WT and FLT3/PM samples. Clinical testing of FLT3 inhibitors as molecularly targeted agents for the improvement of outcome of pediatric AML patients is warranted.
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PMID:Pediatric AML primary samples with FLT3/ITD mutations are preferentially killed by FLT3 inhibition. 1516 29


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