EXPLORING THE GENETIC ASSOCIATION OF ABC TRANSPORTERS WITH ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LUEKEMIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a malignant illness of white blood cells is one of the most significant blood cancers with 80% of cases in children between 2-5 years of age. Despite the long term survival rate, which is more than 85% due to the success in the treatment of the disease, the difficulty arises as a result of resistance in chemotherapy which poses a major challenge. One of the major factor for this resistance has been found to be ATPbinding cassette transporters. ABC transporters are engaged in energy dependent transportation of xenobiotic and other toxic compounds, as well as anti-cancer drugs. In various cancers including lymphoblastic and myeloid leukemia, these transporters have been shown to extrude the drugs resulting in resistance to chemothereutic drugs. It is important to evaluate the role of ABC transporters in drug response in ALL. The aim of this study was to understand whether the gene expression of ABC transporters (ABCC1, ABCC5 and ABCB1) are independent predictors of treatment success and to find out the significant association between ABC transporters and ALL. Role of two molecular chaperons (HSP70 and GRP78) in childhood ALL was also examined to find out possible relation.