Exploring novel genes for the treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)
Description
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the most common childhood malignancies with over 3,000 new cases diagnosed yearly in the United States. While survival rates are climbing, genes linked to ALL can help with risk stratification as well as innovative therapies that cause less side effects. In searching for new targets we identified three genes, ERG (erythroblast transformation-specific family member), INSR (insulin receptor), and MYB (myeloblastosis family member), as highly expressed in biopsies from patients diagnosed with ALL. We aimed to investigate the differential expression of ERG, INSR, and MYB between samples from ALL patients and healthy donors. We used the R2 Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform (R2) to access a pediatric ALL dataset consisting of a total of n=340 samples which we stratified by genotype, focusing solely on primary diagnoses as well as the healthy donors (n=10), where the genotypes High Hyperdiploidy (HeH, n=47) and RUNX1 Amplification on chromosome 21 (iAMP21, n=17) were analyzed in addition to T-ALL (n=19) using log2 gene expression values from R2. HeH presents with 51-65 chromosomes and a good prognosis while iAMP21 leads to overexpression of ERG and a poor prognosis. Statistical analysis in R Studio (R) and Excel showed that ERG, INSR, and MYB gene expressions were significantly elevated in ALL samples compared to healthy donors; of those the gene expression of MYB was found to be the highest. This significant elevation of ERG, INSR, and MYB genes may represent potential targets of therapy and would benefit from experimental work.
Citation Information
Clawson, Joshua and Ananieva-Stoyanova, Elitsa, "Exploring novel genes for the treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)" (2026). Office of Research DMU Research Symposium. 93.
https://digitalcommons.dmu.edu/researchsymposium/2025rs/2025abstracts/93
Exploring novel genes for the treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the most common childhood malignancies with over 3,000 new cases diagnosed yearly in the United States. While survival rates are climbing, genes linked to ALL can help with risk stratification as well as innovative therapies that cause less side effects. In searching for new targets we identified three genes, ERG (erythroblast transformation-specific family member), INSR (insulin receptor), and MYB (myeloblastosis family member), as highly expressed in biopsies from patients diagnosed with ALL. We aimed to investigate the differential expression of ERG, INSR, and MYB between samples from ALL patients and healthy donors. We used the R2 Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform (R2) to access a pediatric ALL dataset consisting of a total of n=340 samples which we stratified by genotype, focusing solely on primary diagnoses as well as the healthy donors (n=10), where the genotypes High Hyperdiploidy (HeH, n=47) and RUNX1 Amplification on chromosome 21 (iAMP21, n=17) were analyzed in addition to T-ALL (n=19) using log2 gene expression values from R2. HeH presents with 51-65 chromosomes and a good prognosis while iAMP21 leads to overexpression of ERG and a poor prognosis. Statistical analysis in R Studio (R) and Excel showed that ERG, INSR, and MYB gene expressions were significantly elevated in ALL samples compared to healthy donors; of those the gene expression of MYB was found to be the highest. This significant elevation of ERG, INSR, and MYB genes may represent potential targets of therapy and would benefit from experimental work.
