Despite this progress, many questions remain unsolved, including how a single JAK2 mutation causes three different MPD phenotypes, what other genes might be involved in the pathogenesis, and what are the factors determining the progression to acute leukemia.
Translocations involving the JAK2 locus are of oncogenic importance in acute leukemias, myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative diseases and T-cell lymphomas.
We demonstrated that acute leukaemia, myeloblastic (AML) and lymphoblastic (ALL), is associated with significantly elevated levels of p53 and Bax mRNA in leukaemic cells.
The expression of p53 was studied in 9 cell lines and 17 de novo acute leukemia (9 acute myeloid leukemia [AML], 8 acute lymphoblastic leukemia [ALL]) patients.
A high JAK2(V617F) allele burden was correlated with the transformation to myelofibrosis (p<0.0001), but not with the transformation to acute leukemia.
To gain further insight into the role of P53 network in the evolution of acute leukemias, the P53, MDM2, BCL2 and BAX mRNAexpressions in portion samples from patients with ALL and AML were analyzed using multiplex RT-PCR.
Activation of JAK2 by chromosomal translocation or point mutation is a recurrent event in hematopoietic malignancies, including acute leukemias and myeloproliferative disorders.
These mutations include JAK2, CALR and MPL mutations as the main disease drivers, mutations driving clonal expansion, and mutations that contribute to progression of chronic MPNs to myelodysplasia and acute leukemia.
The oncoprotein inhibitory member of the ASPP family (iASPP) is a key inhibitor of the p53 tumor suppressor and is upregulated in patients with acute leukemia and breast carcinoma.
Germ-line p53 mutations are associated with dominantly inherited Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS), which features early-onset sarcomas of bone and soft tissues, carcinomas of the breast and adrenal cortex, brain tumors, and acute leukemias.
Mutations in p53 are rarely found in these diseases before acute leukemia transformation, but this does not rule out a role for p53 deregulation in disease progression.