Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0027947 (neutropenia)
 17,527 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Early immune reconstitution after intensive chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) occurs after 2-4 weeks of cytopenia, but T cell reconstitute is usually completed after several months. Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is a T cell growth factor involved in the late immune reconstitution, but its function during the early period of cytopenia has not been investigated. In the present study, we found that patients with untreated AML had decreased IL-7 serum levels, and induction chemotherapy had divergent effects on these levels. In contrast, patients in complete remission (CR) had intermediate levels immediately before consolidation therapy, and these levels decreased significantly when the patients developed therapy-induced cytopenia. Systemic IL-7 levels showed only minor increases during febrile neutropenia. Furthermore, IL-7 enhanced in vitro proliferative responses of polyclonal T cells derived from cytopenic patients, and the majority of circulating clonogenic CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells from cytopenic patients could respond to both IL-2 and IL-7. To conclude, patients with untreated AML and severe chemotherapy-induced leukopenia (1) differ from other patients with CD4(+) T lymphopenia in that they show decreased IL-7 serum levels, and (2) the detection of circulating IL7-responsive T cells indicates that variations in systemic IL-7 levels are functionally important and contribute to an additional qualitative T cell defect in these severely T lymphopenic patients.
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PMID:Interleukin-7 (IL-7) in patients receiving intensive chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia: studies of systemic IL-7 Levels and IL-7 responsiveness of circulating T lymphocytes. 1243 86

T-cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia (LGLL) is a rare clonal disease often associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and manifests chiefly as neutropenia and recurrent infections. Immunosuppressive agents are the mainstay of treatment, but long-term remissions are rare. We report 2 cases of LGLL in patients with RA successfully treated with rituximab, a monoclonal antibody specific of B cells and approved for treating RA. The first patient experienced a complete LGLL remission that was sustained during the 8-year follow-up after the first rituximab infusion. In the second patient, rituximab therapy was followed by immediate neutropenia recovery and then by marked shrinkage of the LGLL clone 1 year later. The paradoxical efficacy of this specific anti-B-cell drug on a monoclonal T-cell disease suggests that some cases of LGLL may be reactive manifestations of chronic autoantigen stimulation rather than true malignancies.
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PMID:Long-term remission of T-cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia associated with rheumatoid arthritis after rituximab therapy. 2386 84