Absence of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) mutations in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) is a non-receptor protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) that is expressed in all haemopoietic lineages except mature T cells and plasma cells. Despite the broad range of expression. mutations that inactivate this molecule affect primarily the development of the B-cell lineage. As a PTK, Btk could potentially be involved directly or indirectly in the processes that relate to the malignant transformation of all the cell lineages where this molecule is expressed. Previous studies have failed to demonstrate mutations in patients with B-cell origin acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). We have utilized a recently developed method that enables the rapid and convenient detection of mutations at the cDNA level, namely, the non-isotopic RNase cleavage assay (NIRCA) to analyse Btk sequences from 27 patients with different types of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The only alteration that we observed was a polymorphism at position 2031. This polymorphism has already been seen in previous studies. Furthermore, using the same methodology, we identified the Btk mutations in six XLA (X-linked agammaglobulinaemia) patients. Our results, although they do not exclude the involvement of Btk mutations in the development or progression of some type of AML, nevertheless suggest that such mutations do not constitute a major co-factor in the development of myeloid malignancies.