Polymorphisms of asparaginase pathway and asparaginase-related complications in children with acute lymphoblastic...

Asparaginase (ASNase) is a standard and critical component in the therapy of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but it is also associated with several toxicities.

We recently reported the results of an association study between ASNase pathway genes and event-free survival (EFS) in childhood patients with ALL. The same polymorphisms were interrogated here in relation to allergies, pancreatitis, and thrombotic events following treatment with E. coli ASNase.

Among patients of the discovery group, allergies, and pancreatitis were more frequent in individuals who are homozygous for the triple-repeat allele (3R) of the asparagine synthetase (ASNS) gene, resulting in remarkably higher risk of these toxicities associated with 3R3R genotype [OR for allergies, 14.6; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.6-58.7; P < 0.0005 and OR for pancreatitis, 8.6; 95% CI, 2.0-37.3; P = 0.01]. In contrast, the ASNS haplotype *1 harboring double-repeat (2R) allele had protective effect against these adverse reactions (P ≤ 0.01). The same haplotype was previously reported to confer reduction in EFS. The risk effect of 3R3R genotype was not replicated in the validation cohort, whereas the protective effect of haplotype *1 against allergies was maintained (P ≤ 0.002). Analysis with additional polymorphisms in ASNS locus in lymphoblastoid cell lines showed that haplotype *1 is diversified in several subtypes of which one was associated with reduced in vitro sensitivity to ASNase (rs10486009, P = 0.01) possibly explaining an association seen in clinical setting.

This finding might have implication for treatment individualization in ALL and other cancers using asparagine depletion strategies. Clin Cancer Res; 21(2); 329-34. ©2014 AACR. See related commentary by Avramis, p. 230.