Abstract:
Background CXCR family has become a research hotspot in the field of malignant tumors. Actively searching and exploring CXCR family members that are closely related to the occurrence, development and prognosis of acute leukemia (AL) are of great practical significance in the basic research and clinical diagnosis and treatment of anti-leukemia.
Objective To explore the expression level of CXC chemokine receptor 1/2 (CXCR1/2) under bone marrow microenvironment in bone marrow mononuclear cells of patients with AL, and analyze the relationship between CXCR1/2 expression and clinical characteristics, curative effect and prognosis of AL patients, so as to provide a new direction for the therapeutic target and disease monitoring of AL.
Methods Bone marrow specimens from 86 newly-diagnosed (ND) AL patients from November 2018 to December 2020 in Fujian Medical University Union Hospital were collected, including 49 males and 37 females, with a median age of 48 years (range: 17-73 years); At the same time, 26 healthy samples were collected, including 17 males and 9 females, with a median age of 36.5 years (range: 23-49 years). And quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) technology was used to detect the expression level of CXCR1/2. Taking the median expression level of CXCR1/2 as the cut-off value, the ND-AL patients were divided into CXCR1/2 high expression group and low expression group, and the relationship between different CXCR1/2 expression levels and various clinical characteristics, indicators and clinical significance of AL patients were analyzed respectively.
Results Among the 86 ND-AL patients included in this study, there were 29 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 57 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The relative expression levels of CXCR1(MdIQR: 0.691 0.176-2.140 vs 0.278 0.088-0.613, P<0.05) and CXCR2 (MdIQR: 1.938 0.729-3.681 vs 0.419 0.079-1.268, P<0.01) in the AL group were higher than those in the healthy control group; there was no significant difference in the relative expression of CXCR1/2 between the AML group and the ALL group (P>0.05). The high expression of CXCR1/2 was associated with adverse clinical features and indicators of AL (P<0.05), and was prone to have adverse outcomes such as extramedullary infiltration, relapse and refractory.
Conclusion CXCR1/2 is up-regulated in AL, which has important reference value for the disease detection of AL.