Precocious clonal hematopoiesis in Down syndrome is accompanied by immune dysregulation
Children with Down syndrome are 20-times more likely to develop acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and 150-times more likely to develop acute myeloid leukemia (AML) compared to their typical peers. According to a new study by researchers at the Linda Crnic Institute for Down syndrome, the reason could be that children with Down syndrome are more likely to present with clonal hematopoiesis (CH), a process in which a blood stem cell acquires a genetic mutation that promotes replication.
The findings, published online by Blood Advances, add to a growing body of evidence, much of which has been established by the Crnic Institute, linking immune dysregulation to a dramatically different disease spectrum, whereby people with Down syndrome are highly predisposed to some diseases (e.g., leukemia, autoimmune disorders, and Alzheimer's disease) and highly protected from others (e.g., solid tumors).