Assessment of Relationship between Wilms’ Tumor Gene (WT1) Expression in Peripheral Blood of Acute Leukemia Patients and Serum IL-12 and C3 Levels

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Leukemia is a common cancer among children and adolescents. Wilms’ tumor gene (WT1)is highly expressed in patients with acute leukemia. It is found as a tumor associated antigen (TAA) in varioustypes of hematopoietic malignancies and can be employed as a useful marker for targeted immunotherapy andmonitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD). In this regard, WT1 is a transcription factor that promotes geneactivation or repression depending on cellular and promoter context. The purpose of this study was assessmentof WT1 gene expression in patients with acute leukemia, measurement of IL-12 and C3 levels in serum andevaluation of the relationship between them. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: We evaluated the expression of WT1mRNA using real-time quantitative RT-PCR and serum levels of IL-12 and C3 using ELISA and nephelometryin peripheral blood of 12 newly diagnosed patients with acute leukemia and 12 controls. <br/><b>Results</b>: The resultsof our study showed that the average wT1 gene expression in patients was 7.7 times higher than in healthycontrols (P <0.05). In addition, IL-12 (P = 0.003) and C3 (P <0.0001) were significantly decreased in the testgroup compared to controls. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: WT1 expression levels are significantly higher in patients comparedwith control subjects whereas serum levels of interleukin-12 and C3 are significantly lower in patients. Wt1expression levels in patients are inversely related with serum levels of IL-12 and C3.