Evidence of somatic hypermutation in the antigen binding sites of patients with CLL harboring IGHV genes with 100% germline identity.

ABSTRACT: Classification of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) based on the somatic hypermutation (SHM) status of the clonotypic immunoglobulin heavy variable (IGHV) gene has established predictive and prognostic relevance. The SHM status is assessed based on the number of mutations within the IG heavy variable domain sequence, albeit only over the rearranged IGHV gene excluding the variable heavy complementarity determining region 3 (VH CDR3). This may lead to an underestimation of the actual impact of SHM, in fact overlooking the most critical region for antigen-antibody interactions, i.e. the VH CDR3. Here we investigated whether SHM may be present within the VH CDR3 of cases bearing 'truly unmutated' IGHV genes (i.e. 100% germline identity across VH FR1-VH FR3) employing Next Gener

SUBMITTER: Sofou E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9795043 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature