The QX200 Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) System (Bio-Rad Laboratories) provides absolute quantification of target DNA or RNA molecules.
It is equipped with QuantaSoft Software (Bio-Rad Laboratories) for miRNA expression analyses.
Introduction: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the first neoplasm where the assessment of early response to therapy by minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring has proven to be a fundamental tool to guide therapeutic choices. The most standardized methods to study MRD in ALL are multi-parametric flow cytometry (MFC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification-based methods. Emerging technologies hold the promise to improve MRD detection in ALL patients.
Minimal residual disease (MRD) is the strongest prognostic factor in both childhood and adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Tumor load reduction during/after induction treatment predicts response to therapy and risk of relapse, and thus guides treatment decisions [1].
Digital PCR is a technology that provides ultrasensitive and absolute nucleic acid quantification. It is particularly useful for low-abundance targets, targets in complex backgrounds, allelic variants (SNPs), and for monitoring subtle changes in target levels that cannot be detected with real-time PCR. This technology is now approved for use in in vitro diagnostics.
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