SUMMARY

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a type of blood cancer that large numbers of abnormal, immature lymphocytes termed blasts begin to over proliferate in the bone marrow. The lymphocyte cells and interleukins are crucial for controlling the immune response in tumor microenvironment. Cytokines are an essential part of the leukemia microenvironment and have been associated with the onset and progression of many types of cancer, especially ALL. Moreover many of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of some interleukin genes may change protein synthesis or function and regulate the immune response and a lot of these have been connected to a high risk of developing cancer.
The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of IL-12 and IL-18 gene polymorphisms on TNF-α and INF-γ production by immune cells in the ALL patients and the frequencies of IL-12 and IL-18 polymorphisms in ALL also to determine the potential association between IL-12 and IL-18 genotypes and as a risk factor to ALL in Iraqi patients. This study was conducted from October 2021 to March 2022 in Nanakali hospital for blood and cancer diseases in Erbil city.
Fifty-nine patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 30 healthy controls were enrolled in the current study. The expression of IL-12 and IL-18 SNP genes was determined by ARMS-PCR methods and serum levels of IFN-γ and TNF-α have been determined by utilizing ELISA kit.
According to this research, ALL patients had significantly higher serum levels of both cytokines IFN-γ and TNF-α compared with control individuals. No significant association between IL-12 and IL-18 polymorphism and the secretion of serum IFN-γ and TNF-α levels was observed. The allelic and genotypic frequencies of IL-12 (+1188A/C) CA, AA and CA+AA genotypes showed a strong association with development of acute lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) disease. While IL-18 genotypes show no significant association with the disease progressions.