Down syndrome or more specifically a genetic disorder and abnormality in the number of chromosome 21. Instead of having two copies of chromosome 21, children with Down syndrome have three copies of it. Therefore, this genetic disorder is also referred to a constitutional trisomy 21 in medical journals.
After a case reported and published in 1930 to relate the susceptibility of having leukemia when the patients have a genetic condition such as Down Syndrome, the link between leukemia and genetic disorder has been questioned and become a spotlight when conducting a research.
Researchers compared two groups of leukemia patients. They compared toxicity level and side effects of chemotherapy between Down syndrome leukemia patients and non-Down syndrome leukemia patients. The result is children with Down syndrome who have leukemia have high and increased level of toxicity to chemotherapy drugs compared to patients who don't have any type of genetical disorders.
Children with Down syndrome lack genes that are important for expressing other significant genes or hormones in their bodies. One of which is GATA1. These children have mutations in this gene. Researchers have compared children with leukemia who lack this gene and children with leukemia who do not have genetical disorder. Children who lack this gene couldn't express other genes that help them to recover from chemotherapy drugs. The level of gene expression is very low compared to the control group. The link between mutations in the gene GATA1 and treatment-related toxicity is not understood at first.
Now that the relationship between lacking the gene GATA1 and experiencing toxicities to chemotherapy is being understood, researchers are trying to develop new chemotherapy drugs that decrease the treatment-related toxicities and prevent relapse pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients with Down syndrome.
Article Source:
(1) Acute leukemia in children with Down syndrome (Haematologica)
By: Xavier, Ana, and Jeffrey Taub.
Other Sources:
(2) Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treatment (National Cancer Institute) http://www.cancer.gov/types/leukemia/patient/child-all-treatment-pdq
(3) Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Learn the Symptoms (MedicineNet) http://www.medicinenet.com/childhood_acute_lymphoblastic_leukemia/article.htm
Nice job again this week. So what you're saying or what the article is saying is that if someone has a genetic disorder such as down syndrome for example, they are more susceptible to Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and also to the toxicity levels of the chemotherapeutic treatment?
ReplyDeleteIn the study between the down syndrome/leukemia patients and the non-down syndrome/leukemia patients, wouldn't it make sense for these results to appear due to that the down syndrome leukemia patients have more complications for the body to deal with and are missing certain genes such as the GATA1 you mentioned?
I was surprised to know that Down Syndrome could be linked to Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. while reading your blog, I got confused in one thing. I know that people with Down Syndrome have three copies of chromosome 21. however, you said that people with down syndrome "lack genes that are important for expressing other significant genes or hormones in their bodies", how is that possible? I thought that they might express proteins more than normal people!
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