Herg1b Expression as a Potential Specific Marker in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients with HERG 897K/K Genotype

Abstract

Human ether-a-go-go related gene (herg) encoding HERG K+ channel has been demonstrated in many previous studies with its association to cell cycle progression and growth in tumor cells. The upregulated expression of HERG K+ channels was determined in different tumor types. Furthermore, not only full-length transcript herg1 but also a truncated isoform herg1b was shown to be expressed in cancer cells. In this study, the expression levels of herg1 and herg1b and the impact of K897T mutation on their expressions were investigated in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (pAML). Expression levels of herg1 and herg1b isoforms were analyzed by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in pAML patients together with healthy donors, and their expressions were confirmed by western blotting. The 2690 A>C nucleotide variation in KCNH2 gene corresponding to K897T amino acid change was analyzed by PCR followed by restriction enzyme digestion. herg1b overexpression was observed in tumor cells compared to healthy controls (P = .0024). However, herg1 expression was higher in healthy control cells than tumor cells (P = .001). The prevalence of polymorphic allele 897T was 26% in our patient group and 897T carriers showed increased herg1b expression compared to wild-type allele carriers. Our results demonstrate the presence of the increased levels of herg1b expression in pAML. In addition, we report for the first time that, pAML subgroup with HERG 897K/K genotype compared to 897K/T and T/T genotypes express increased levels of herg1b. In conclusion, HERG 897K/K genotype with increased level of herg1b expression might well be a prognostic marker for pAML.