Functional genomics of hTERT gene in leukemic myelopoiesis.

Keeping in view the fact that a single acquired genetic abnormality "Bcr-Abl chimeric gene" accompanied by elevated telomerase activity has been widely recognized to be responsible for the leukemic myelopoiesis observed in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), the present study was addressed to understand as to how selective and specific knock-down of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene within mononuclear cells derived from untreated CML subjects could influence the apoptotic, genotypic (such as Bcr-Abl; C-myc; Bcl-2; IL-6; GMCSF; IL-3; and acetylated H(3) and H(4)), and phenotypic (such as CD34 and CD89) characteristics of these cells. Based upon these results, we propose that hTERT gene-based drug design may be useful in the treatment of leukemic myelopoiesis.