We investigated the prognostic significance of early peripheral blast clearance as assessed by WT1 transcript reduction during the first days of standard induction therapy in 57 adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Quantification of WT1 transcript by real-time quantitative PCR in peripheral blood on days 1 and 5 of treatment was performed. WT1 ratio was defined as the ratio of copy...

Wilms tumor 1 (WT1) gene is a tumor supressor gene, expressed in malignant and normal hematopoietic progenitor cells. Prognostic significance of this gene in childhood acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) is not clear. We evaluated the presence of WT1 expression in bone marrow samples of 28 children with de novo ALL at diagnosis by two step RT-PCR. Expression of WT1 gene was detected in 78.5% of patie...

The Wilms' tumor suppressor WT1 is a transcriptional regulator present in the fetal but not in the mature liver. Its expression and functional role in liver diseases remains unexplored. In this study, we analyzed WT1 expression by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and by immunohistochemistry in normal and diseased livers. In addition, we performed in vitro studies in isol...

PURPOSE Wilms' tumor 1 protein (WT1), a transcription factor overexpressed in malignant mesothelioma, leukemias, and other solid tumors, is an ideal target for immunotherapy. WT1 class I peptide epitopes that were identified and shown to stimulate CD8(+) T cells are being tested as vaccine candidates in several clinical trials. The induction and maintenance of a robust memory CD8(+) cytotoxic T...

Background The optimal strategy for vaccination to induce CD8+ T cell responses against WT1 is not known. Methods A pilot randomized study in HLA-A02+ patients to receive vaccination with WT1 in Montanide or in poly ICLC, a TLR3 agonist, to explore the novel immune adjuvant was conducted. Seven patients were randomized. Four patients received WT1 in Montanide, and three with WT1 in poly ICLC....

BACKGROUND Pure curcumin has been reported to down-regulate the expression of WT1 in leukemic cells. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the down-regulation of WT1 by curcumin is not completely delineated. The purpose of this present study is to identify a new miRNA-mediated mechanism which plays an important role in the anti-proliferation effects of curcumin in leukemic cells. METHOD...

PURPOSE Because WT1 is a universal tumor antigen, we examined the sensitivity of myeloma cells to WT1-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)-mediated cytotoxicity. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN WT1 expression in hematologic malignant cells was examined by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The cytotoxicity of a WT1-specific CTL clone against hematologic malignant cells, includ...

WT1 encodes a zinc finger transcription factor implicated in kidney differentiation and tumorigenesis. In reporter assays, WT1 represses transcription from GC- and TC-rich promoters, but its physiological targets remain uncertain. We used hybridization to high-density oligonucleotide arrays to search for native genes whose expression is altered following inducible expression of WT1. The major t...

INTRODUCTION The pediatric kidney malignancy Wilms’ tumor has an incidence of 1 in 10 000 in North America (Matsunaga, 1981), making it the most common solid tumor in childhood (Bennington and Beckwith, 1975). Wilms’ tumor is thought to arise from a single transformed pluripotent nephron progenitor cell whose progeny fail to undergo normal differentiation. WT1 was the first gene identified as m...

BACKGROUND Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) has been shown to induce breast cancer metastasis in animal models. cDNA microarrays have revealed that KGF increased Wilms tumor 1 (WT1) and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) expression in breast cancer cells. The role of WT1 and FAK in KGF signaling was investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cell culture wounding model was used to study the effects of WT...