Increased expression of autophagy protein LC3 in two patients with progressing chronic lymphocytic leukemia

DANIELA ARROYO; CLARISA MANZONE-RODRIGUEZ; CARMEN STANGANELLI; CECILIA RODRÍGUEZ; DARÍO SASTRE; IRMA SLAVUTSKY; CLAUDIO BUSSI; VIVIANA HELLER; PABLO IRIBARREN

Autophagy in endocrine-metabolic diseases associated with aging

Frontiers Media SA

Lugar: Lausana; Año: 2020; p. 136 - 141

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common type of leukemia in adults,characterized by the expansion of a population of monoclonal CD5+ B lymphocytes thataccumulate in the blood, bone marrow, and secondary lymphoid tissues. Some CLL patientsremain free of symptoms for decades, whereas others rapidly become symptomatic or develophigh-risk disease. Here, we applied flow cytometry technology to simultaneously detectautophagy protein LC3B with classical phenotypical markers used for identification of tumoralCLL B cell clones. We found that two patients with progressing CLL showed increasedexpression of the autophagy protein LC3B, in addition to CD38 and ZAP70 positive expressionand unmutated status of IGHV. Our results suggest that activation of autophagy flux maycorrelate with CLL progression.