Background: During the last years the appearance of the acquired V617F mutation of the Janus Kinase 2 gene (JAK2) in patients suffering different thrombotic events has been described. We decided to develop a new and rapid multiplex real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in order to detect the V617F mutation together with the inherited prothrombotic mutations of factors F5 and F2.
Design and methods: The method was carried out on the LightCycler 2.0 (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) and consisted in a first step of simultaneous amplification by real-time PCR of the three genes to be genotyped, in a 20microl closed tube, using a primer pair together with the correspondent FRET-hybridization probes for each gene.
Results: We assayed 41 samples in the multiplex PCR reaction, 19 were positive (46.34%) for V617F mutation. From the V617F positive samples we found 1 sample heterozygous for F2 (5.26%) and 1 sample heterozygous for F5 (5.26%), so a 10.52% of the samples tested combine V617F mutation with inherited thrombophilic mutations. Results were clear, rapid and reliable allowing a significant time saving.
Conclusions: The technique presented in this manuscript is a new achievement in the field of the molecular diagnosis that combines the genotyping of F5 and F2 with the assessment of the JAK2 (V617F) mutation load.