Circulating Nucleic Acids: Role in Hematological Malignancies
Suraj Shankar,
Research Scholar,
Imperial College London
Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is a hematological malignancy characterized by the abnormal proliferation of cells of the myeloid lineage in the bone marrow (specifically WBCs). The current standard for diagnosing CML is detection of Bcr-Abl fusion transcript through real time PCR done on sample extracted from peripheral blood(PB) or bone marrow(BM) sample. However, this method is unable to always reflect the total burden of leukemic cells in the whole body. This is mainly because leukemic cells are not distributed evenly between PB and BM or among BMs at different sites in patients.
Cancer cells have been shown to pour fragments of their nucleic acids into the bloodstream by mechanisms of apoptosis, necrosis or secretion. This has sparked various studies assessing their potential for use as non-invasive biomarkers. While the diagnostic potential of these circulating nucleic acids (CNAs) has been investigated extensively, there is a paucity of understanding of their pathophysiological functions. This study aims to elucidate the role of plasma derived CNAs in disease progression and drug response through clinical correlation with patient samples obtained at St. John's Medical College Hospital, Bangalore.
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