Identification of oncogene mutations in leukemia patients using microchip-based PCR analysis

Abstract

At present, cytogenetic and PCR-based techniques are generally used in the diagnosis of leukemia. Due to high accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity of PCR assays, they have the advantage over traditional cytogenetic tools. As a rule, the classical real time PCR is carried out in a 25-μL reaction mixture. It requires a large volume of each reagent and takes a long time to finish the test. The molecular genetic assay presented here is microchip-based real-time PCR that is optimized for simultaneous analysis of 15 oncogene mutations and one housekeeping gene abl. Moreover, this diagnostic tool requires a minimal amount of cDNA and PCR reagents (10-fold less) and a short time (2-fold less) for quantitative estimation of more than five copies of gene-target. Thus, microchip-based PCR analysis can improve the detection of oncogene mutations in leukemia patients and may be used for both early diagnostics and long-term monitoring of leukemia.