A biochip-based method was developed to identify the BCR-ABL mutations that affect the thyrosine kinase domain and determine resistance to targeted therapy with thyrosine kinase inhibitors. The method is based on RT-PCR followed by allele-specific hybridization on a biochip with immobilized oligonucleotide probes. The biochip addresses 11 mutations, which are responsible for up to 85% of imatinib resistance cases. A method to decect the clinically significant mutation T315I was designed on the basis of LNA-clamped PCR and proved highly sensitive, detecting the mutation in clinical samples with a leukemic cell content of 5% or higher. The method was validated using clinical samples from chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients with acquired resistance to imatinib. The results of hybridization on biochip were verified by Sanger sequencing.
Keywords: chimeric gene BCR-ABL; chronic myeloid leukemia; imatinib resistance; mutations.