Conclusions
This study unveiled a small gene expression signature consisting of nine genes that distinguished an untreated CLL patient who followed prolonged periods of total fasting, maintaining a gradual growth trend of lymphocytosis, compared to five untreated CLL patients with a varied diet. Future investigations focusing on patient #1 could potentially shed light on the role of prolonged periodic fasting and the implication of this specific gene signature in sustaining the lymphocytosis trend and the favorable course of the disease.
Methods
For this purpose, we decided to analyze the whole transcriptome profiling of peripheral blood (PB) CD19+ cells from the patient (#1) at different time-points vs. the same cells of five other untreated CLL patients who followed a varied diet. Consequently, the CLL patients were categorized as follows: the 1st group comprised patient #1 at 20 different time-points (16 time-points during nutrition and 4 time-points during fasting), whereas the 2nd group included only one time point for each of the patients (#2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) as they followed a varied diet. We performed microarray experiments using a powerful tool, the Affymetrix Human Clariom™ D Pico Assay, to generate high-fidelity biomarker signatures. Statistical analysis was employed to identify differentially expressed genes and to perform sample clustering.
Results
The lymphocytosis trend in patient #1 showed recurring fluctuations since the time of diagnosis. Interestingly, we observed that approximately 4-6 weeks after the