Researchers Identify Novel Biomarker, Therapeutic Target for Polycythemia Vera

[Manouche]

« This study identified MAPK14 as a promising disease marker,” they concluded and provided insight into therapeutic targets »

ajmc.com/view/researchers-i...

[EPguy]

My understanding here is MAPK14 relates to total levels of Jak2, both mutated and not, and more total Jak2 is a negative.

In this part <<The JAK2 mutation burden was insignificantly higher in the MAPK14-high group compared with the MAPK14-low group (90.5% vs 78.9%; P = .19) which may be due to insufficient samples>>

the P value is high at 0.19. I've started to understand P, it should be less than 0.03 for a statistically important meaning. Their "insufficient" comment matches this idea. I will use this new insight in my thinking on the various other studies we have seen.

This part<<JAK2-homozygous mutation carriers had significantly higher expression of MAPK14 than all other mutation types.>> is consistent with what I've heard, homozyg is a negative, but few tests of ours look for this.

They say it's relevant to PV treatment but <<MAPK14 significantly positively correlated with JAK2 expression in PV and ET patients>> suggests this finding is relevant to ET also.

[Loooonglife]

Hi Manouche,Thank you for sending these updates. Please keep them coming.