Rapid isolation of chromosomal breakpoints from patients with t(4;11) acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Implications for basic and clinical research

Chromosomal translocations t(4;11)(q21;q23) are associated with a group of acute lymphoblastic Leukemias with very poor prognosis. From the complete s equences of the breakpoint cluster regions of the human MLL and AF-4 transl ocation partner genes, a novel set of 66 oligonucleotides that facilitates the rapid identification of translocation breakpoints by PCR analysis of ge nomic DNA was designed. For each breakpoint, a pair of optimally suited pri mers can be assigned, which improves the monitoring of the disease during t reatment. Comparison of the breakpoints with the corresponding parental seq uences also contributes to our better understanding of the illegitimate rec ombination events leading to these translocations.