• Rim Frikha, Nawel Abdellaoui, Olfa Kassar, and Tarek Rebai.
• Department of Medical Genetics-HediChaker Hospital, Sfax-Tunisia.
• Afr Health Sci. 2022 Jun 1; 22 (2): 318322318-322.

BackgroundThe fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) gene belong to the class III receptor tyrosine kinases witch is predominantly expressed on hematopoietic progenitor cells, and plays an important role in haematopoiesis. Targeting the FMS-like tyrosine kinase receptor-3 (FLT3) in acute leukemia is mainly important. Therefore, activating mutations in FLT3, primarily the FLT3-internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD), was used as a prognostic marker especially in myeloid leukemia; however, in ALL, the prognostic relevance of FLT3 mutations is less clear.ObjectivesThis study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of FLT3-ITD mutation in Tunisian childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and to correlate this mutation with prognostic parameters.MethodsGenomic DNA was extracted from EDTA-anticoagulant blood samples from a total of 25 children suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). After DNA extraction, the polymerase chain reaction using specific primers was conducted to screen the FLT3-ITD.ResultsIn acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 9 cases with LAL-B were detected and the median age is 13 years. Chromosome abnormalities were detected in 5 with ALL and are correlated with worse prognosis (very high risk and relapse). At molecular lever, never FLT3-ITD was detected.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that FLT3 mutations are not common in Tunisian childhood ALL and thus do not affect clinical outcome.© 2022 Frikha R et al.

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