Aberrant phosphorylation of STAT5 by granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in infant cytomegalovirus infection mimicking juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) progenitor cells exhibit in vitro hypersensitivity to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). Phospho-specific flow cytometry using anti-phosphorylated STAT5 antibody is a new method recently reported to detect GM-CSF hypersensitivity of cells. However, colony assays using methylcellulose medium to measure GM-CSF-hypersensitivity remain as the current gold standard. Interestingly, cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in infancy often presents with a variety of clinical symptoms that mimic JMML, with CMV giving a positive result by colony assay. We wanted to determine whether aberrant STAT5 activation occurs in CMV infection by using phospho-specific flow cytometry, and to ascertain whether this method is effective at discriminating CMV infection from JMML. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with JMML and CMV infection displayed an elevated proportion of p-STAT5 cells after low-dose GM-CSF stimulation when compared with cells from normal individuals. However, we found no significant differences in the percentage of p-STAT5 positive cells from patients with CMV infection and JMML at any doses of the GM-CSF doses used. We conclude that patients with CMV infection cannot be discriminated from patients with JMML by this new diagnostic method.