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- Infantile leukemia and soybeans--a hypothesis
[editorial]
- Abe T
- Leukemia 1999, 13:317-20
- Abstract
- Recent molecular-genetic studies have revealed
that in the majority of patients with secondary leukemia induced
by topoisomerase II (topo II) inhibitors and also with infantile
acute leukemia (IAL), the breakpoints are clustered within scaffold
attachment regions (SARs) of 3'-MLL-bcr near exon 9. Genistein,
abundant in soybeans, is reported to be a potent nonintercalative
topo II inhibitor. It interferes with the break-reseal reaction
of topo II by stabilizing a cleavable complex, which in the presence
of detergents, results in DNA strand breaks. The present study
revealed that genistein induced chromatid-type aberrations, in
which chromatid exchanges are often observed. Genistein seems
to act in a manner very similar to that of VP-16, although the
latter is reported to produce both chromatid- and chromosome-type
aberrations. In view of this pharmacological similarity between
genistein and VP-16, and also the similarity of breakpoint clustering
regions within the MLL gene in reported cases with secondary leukemia
and IAL, genistein may be largely responsible for the development
of IAL.
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