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Biomarkers in myelodysplastic syndromes

Tipologia
Progetti interni
Settore ERC
LS4_6 - Microbiome and host physiology

Aree / Gruppi di ricerca

Partecipanti al progetto

Descrizione del progetto

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are heterogeneous clonal myeloid disorders characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis (especially erythropoiesis) and cytopenia. The incidence in Europe and in Italy is about 4-5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants but reaches 40-50 per 100,000 inhabitants in the over 70-year-old population. An important characteristic of MDS is their highly variable clinical course and outcome. For this reason, the clinical care of MDS patients is still challenging due to lack of well-established markers that effectively monitor MDS natural history. Therefore, predicting at diagnosis patients that might respond or not to treatment (e.g. with erythropoietic stimulating agents) is pivotal to personalise treatments in order to improve quality of life and prolong survival. The primary objective of the project is to evaluate the role of iron metabolism and erythropoiesis genes and if they can be used, at diagnosis, as biomarkers predicting the natural history of MDS and the response to treatments with erythropoietin. By analysing the expression of ERFE, TFR2 and EPOR in total bone marrow cells we established a positive correlation among these 3 genes and showed that they correlated with some clinical parameters (i.e. bone marrow erythroblasts, MCV and serum iron level). Moreover, EPO-treated patients that maintained their response after six months of treatments had, at diagnosis, a higher level of ERFE, TFR2 and EPOR compared to the ones that did not reach or had already lost the erythropoietic response to EPO. ERFE, TFR2 and EPOR could be, therefore, biomarkers of an erythropoietic system capable to be further stimulated by pharmaceutical agents such as erythropoietin. To further support the role of these genes as early independent prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers of erythropoietin response we will investigate how their expression changes in the different phases of the disease (loss of response to erythropoietin and evolution to acute leukemia) and the role of the EPOR signaling pathway mediated by ERK1/2.

Risultati e pubblicazioni

Di Savino A, Gaidano V, Palmieri A, Crasto F, Volpengo A, Lorenzatti R, Scaravaglio P, Manello A, Nicoli P, Gottardi E, Saglio G, Cilloni D, De Gobbi M. Clinical significance of TFR2 and EPOR expression in bone marrow cells in myelodysplastic syndromes. Br J Haematol. 2017;176:491-495.

Ultimo aggiornamento: 13/11/2017 16:44
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