WT1 gene expression lowered by IL-12 In vitro in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes.

2006 
Previous studies demonstrated that interleukin-12 (IL-12) enhances the non-MHC-restricted cytotoxic activity of NK cells and facilitate specific allogeneic human cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses against fresh leukemia cells and cell lines. The Wilms' tumor gene, WT1 mRNA, has been used as a marker of minimal residual disease (MRD) for evaluating therapeutic efficacy of patients with leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). This study was aimed to investigate whether in vitro IL-12 can lower WT1 gene expression in peripheral blood monuclear cells (PBMNC) from patients with leukemia or MDS. PBMNC from these 30 patients and 5 healthy volunteers were cultured at 5×10~5 cells/ml alone with or without 100 units/ml of IL-12 for 3 days. WT1 mRNA was measured by competitive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) since WT1 mRNA is considered as a marker of minimal residual disease (MRD) in leukemia and MDS. The results demonstrated that WT1 mRNA in PBMNC of 5 healthy volunteers was less than 10~3copies/μg of total RNA. Following the 3-day IL-12 treatment, mean WT1 mRNA of PBMNC was reduced from 10~ 4.8 to 10~ 4.2 copies/μg of total RNA in 6 CML patients, from 10~ 5.4 to 10~ 4.8 copies/μg in 12 MDS patients and from 10~ 5.0 to 10~ 4.2 copies/μg in 5 AML patients in CR, but not reduced in 5 of 7 AML in non-CR. It is concluded that IL-12 significantly decrease the quantity of leukemia cells in PBMNC of most patients with MDS, CML and AML in CR. IL-12 may be of considerable benefit in the elimination of MRD in patients with hematological malignancies.
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