Expression of Deoxycytidine Kinase and Cytidine Deaminase mRNA in Children with Acute Leukemia

Objective To investigate the expression of deoxycytidine kinase(DCK) and cytidine deaminase(CDA) gene in children with acute leukemia and to explore the relationship between gene expression and clinical response to cytarabine(Ara-C).Methods Semi-quantity reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) was used to detect the expression level of DCK and CDA in 32 children(including 17 ALL,15 AML,27 previously untreated and 5 relapsed patients).Results The average expression of DCK in ALL children was significantly higher than that of children with AML(1.914±0.127 vs 0.838±0.093 P=0).It was about 2 times in previously untreated group than in relapsed group(1.474±0.547 vs 0.778±0.059).The level of CDA was 0.518±0.107 in whole cohort.There was no significance between previously untreated group and relapsed group.So was in different morphologic subtype groups(P0.05).The ratio of CDA/DCK in previously untreated children was much lower than that of relapsed children(0.422±0.049 vs 0.640±0.031 P=0.001).AML children in complete remission(CR) after treatment with one to two DA or HA regimen had lower CDA/DCK ratio than non-CR patients(0.561±0.053 vs 0.728±0.066 P=0).Conclusion The level of DCK expression and the ratio of CDA/DCK may be the predictors of treatment response to Ara-C containing regimen in children with acute leukemia.