Frequency of BCR-ABL Fusion Transcripts among Sudanese Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia Patients

Abstract

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal disease characterized by presence of the hybrid gene BCR-ABL, usually located on the Philadelphia chromosome which results from reciprocal translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22. There are two major forms of the BCR-ABL fusion gene, involving ABL exon 2, but including different exons of BCR gene. The transcripts b2a2 or b3a2 code for a p210 protein. Another fusion gene leads to the expression of an e1a2 transcript, which codes for a p190 protein. Another, less common fusion gene is e19a2, which encodes a p230 protein.