Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Zoology

Preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) is a cancer-testis antigen (CTA) that belongs to the group of tumor associated antigens. The expression of PRAME gene is down regulated in almost all normal adult tissues. The PRAME transcript is overexpressed in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients and is usually associated with a better prognosis.The aim of this study was to assess the expression PRAME gene in Egyptian adult AML patients at diagnosis and before the start of the treatment and to correlate its expression with the clinical response. PRAME transcript expression was studied in 57 adult AML patients using reverse transcriptase-real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). PRAME m-RNA expression was detected in 22 (38.6%) of patients. No significant correlation was found between High expression of PRAME gene and any of the clinical or hematological variables except for BM promonocytes in M4 and M5. PRAME positive patients showed good response to treatment compared those who were PRAME negative. The rate of complete remission (CR) was 61.11 % (11/18) compared to 48.28% (14/29) in PRAME positive and PRAME negative patients, respectively (p- value = 0.391). It seems that there is an increase in the overall survival among the PRAME positive compared to the PRAME negative group although the difference was not significant (p > 0.05), this might be due to the limited number of samples included in the study. In conclusion, PRAME is an attractive tumor-associated antigen and its expression was relatively associated with good prognosis. More studies should aim at detailed understanding of the mechanisms of PRAME action and its use in minimal residual disease detection and immunotherapy

Issued also as CD