OCT-1 Expression in Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: A Comparative Analysis with Respect to Response to Imatinib Treatment

Abstract

The introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) has resulted in a significant improvement in the treatment of CML patients. However, some CML patients are resistant to imatinib therapy, the initial TKI therapy in the CML. Therefore, it is important to find prognostic markers for resistance. TheOCT-1gene involved in imatinib uptake is also suspected to cause imatinib resistance. The aim of this study was to investigate the role ofOCT-1in imatinib resistance by comparingOCT-1expression levels in imatinib resistant and imatinib sensitive patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). This study was conducted on 101 patients with CML [imatinib sensitive (n = 51) and imatinib resistant (n = 50)] who were treated with imatinib. Gene expression analysis was done using QRT-PCR. The relative expression levels ofOCT-1were calculated using 2(−ΔΔCT) method.OCT1mRNA expression levels were 0.149 (0.011–2.532) and 0.119 (0.008–2.868) in imatinib-sensitive group and imatinib-resistant group, respectively.OCT-1expression levels were not significantly different in the imatinib-sensitive group when compared to imatinib resistant group (p > 0.05).OCT-1expression was also similar inBCR-ABL1kinase domain mutation positive and negative cases (p > 0.05). The imatinib-resistant group had a higher rate of hydroxyurea or interferon-alpha treatment prior to imatinib therapy and a lower rate for first-line imatinib as the only treatment than the imatinib-sensitive group (p = 0.002 andp = 0.002, respectively). According to the results of our study,OCT-1does not have a biomarker feature in the evaluation of imatinib response. In addition, the study should be performed in larger patient groups.