The role of PANE1 as a model for minor histocompatibility restricted antigen in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for leukemic patients

Background: In hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), minor histocompatibility antigens (MiHA) can be used as tools for immunotherapy especially if they are restricted to hematopoietic cells like PANE1 MiHA.
 
Purpose of study:  We aimed at studying PANE1 as MiHA model in human leucocyte antigen (HLA) matched related Egyptian HSCT patients regarding its frequency and the effect of mismatching in PANE1 on HSCT outcomes.
 
Methods: Ninety-six patient/donor pairs were studied for the prevalence of disparities in PANE1 MiHA and its effect on graft versus host disease (GvHD) and graft versus leukemia (GvL). A sequence- specific primer (SSP) approach was used to determine the immunogenic (PANER) and non-immunogenic (PANES) alleles of PANE1 gene. Student ttest, Mann-Whitney U test, ANOVA F-test, and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used to determine the significance of the difference for quantitative data. Relations of qualitative data were determined using Chi-square test. Survival analysis was done using Kaplan-Meier method to determine overall survival (OS).
 
Results:  High prevalence PANER allele of PANE1 was observed in both patients and donors (192/192,100% of 96 patient/donor pairs). Mismatches in PANE1 gene were observed in 9 patient /donor pairs. Nine cases showed relapse post-transplantation and there was no association between PANE1 mismatch and relapse (p=0.8).
 
Conclusion:  No association between mismatches in PANE1 gene and any transplant - related outcome was observed. Which might decrease its use as a target for immunotherapy in Egyptian leukemia patients.