NOTCH1, SF3B1, MDM2 and MYD88 mutations in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Mutations in certain genes have been suggested to be associated with the pathogenesis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which is the most common leukemia in adults. In a case-control study, 100 patients with CLL and 105 healthy individuals were investigated for Notch homolog 1, translocation-associated (Drosophila) (NOTCH1) c.7544-7545delCT, recombinant splicing factor 3B subunit 1 (SF3B1) c.2098A>G, mouse double minute 2 homolog (MDM2) 40-bp insertion/deletion and myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MYD88) L265P mutations by using allele specific-polymerase chain reaction (AS-PCR), a designed AS-PCR, PCR and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism methods, respectively. The presence of NOTCH1 and SF3B1 mutations were confirmed by genomic DNA sequencing. The NOTCH1 mutation was detected in 10% of patients and not detected in the control group. A higher frequency of NOTCH1 mutation was detected in patients with stage III CLL (62.5%) compared with stages 0-II CLL (37.5%) (odds ratio, 4.69-fold; 95% confidence interval, 1.0-21.9; P=0.049). The SF3B1 mutation was observed in 12% of the patients compared with 1.9% of the controls (P=0.012). The presence of MDM2 polymorphism was not associated with the risk or the stage of the disease. In addition, the MYD88 L265P mutation was not detected in the patients or the controls. The current study established the frequency of NOTCH1, SF3B1, MDM2 and MYD88 mutations in patients with CLL from the Kurdish population of Western Iran. In summary, a high frequency of NOTCH1 and SF3B1 mutations were identified in patients with CLL compared with healthy individuals, and the NOTCH1 mutation was associated with a high stage of the disease.