Expression and clinical application of the mRNA of PI3K and Akt mRNA in leukemia

Objective To study the expression of PI3K and Akt mRNA in acute leukemia(AL) and chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) and try to find out a relationship between the prognostic significance of acute leukemia and the expression level of PI3K and Akt. Methods The samples were collected from 63 ALpatients, 7 relapsed AL patients, 14 CML patients and 10 AL patients in complete remission(CR) patients, 11samples of normal controls(NC). The expression of PI3K, Akt mRNA were measured by semi-quantity reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR). Results The expression of PI3K mRNA in AL and relapse group were significantly higher than that in normal control. In CML, the P13K mRNA expression level was higher than that in NC and CR. The similar results of the expression of Akt mRNA were observed in CML, NC and CR. At the same time, the expression level of Akt mRNA in relapse group was significantly higher than that in NC. The complete remission rate in PI3K (+) was lower than that in PI3K (-). Similar result was obtained in Akt (+) and Akt (-). Conclusion The PI3K/Akt pathway may contribute to the occurrence of leukemia. The patients with positive expression of the members of this pathway had a lower remission rate. Key words: PI3K/Akt;  Signaling pathway;  Leukemia;  RT-PCR