AI Article Synopsis
- The study focuses on how acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem cells, particularly those from female patients, resist treatment due to their interaction with the bone marrow niche.
- Researchers found that a specific protein pathway, involving glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β), helps these leukemic stem cells survive when they adhere to certain components in the bone marrow.
- Inhibiting GSK3β not only made the leukemic cells more sensitive to the chemotherapy drug etoposide but also highlighted significant differences in survival pathways between male and female patients, suggesting gender could influence treatment strategies for AML.
Article Abstract
Therapeutic resistance of acute myeloid leukemia stem cells, enriched in the CD34(+)38(-)123(+) progenitor population, is supported by extrinsic factors such as the bone marrow niche. Here, we report that when adherent onto fibronectin or osteoblast components, CD34(+)38(-)123(+) progenitors survive through an integrin-dependent activation of glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) by serine 9-dephosphorylation. Strikingly, GSK3β-mediated survival was restricted to leukemic progenitors from female patients. GSK3β inhibition restored sensitivity to etoposide, and impaired the clonogenic capacities of adherent leukemic progenitors from female patients. In leukemic progenitors from female but not male patients, the scaffolding protein RACK1, activated downstream of α(5)β(1)-integrin engagement, was specifically upregulated and controlled GSK3β activation through the phosphatase protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). In a mirrored manner, survival of adherent progenitors (CD34(+)38(-)) from male but not female healthy donors was partially dependent on this pathway. We conclude that the GSK3β-dependent survival pathway might be sex-specific in normal immature population and flip-flopped upon leukemogenesis. Taken together, our results strengthen GSK3β as a promising target for leukemic stem cell therapy and reveal gender differences as a new parameter in anti-leukemia therapy.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/onc.2011.258 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Effective eradication of acute myeloid leukemia stem cells with FLT3-directed antibody-drug conjugates.
Leukemia
January 2025
Department of Medicine III, LMU University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
Refractory disease and relapse are major challenges in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) therapy attributed to survival of leukemic stem cells (LSC). To target LSCs, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) provide an elegant solution, combining the specificity of antibodies with highly potent payloads. We aimed to investigate if FLT3-20D9h3-ADCs delivering either the DNA-alkylator duocarmycin (DUBA) or the microtubule-toxin monomethyl auristatin F (MMAF) can eradicate quiescent LSCs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSomatic mutations and DNA methylation identify a subgroup of poor prognosis within lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes.
Hemasphere
January 2025
Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, INSERM U1016, CNRS UMR8104 Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris.Centre, Laboratory of Hematology, Hôpital Cochin Paris France.
Lower risk (LR) myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are heterogeneous hematopoietic stem and progenitor disorders caused by the accumulation of somatic mutations in various genes including epigenetic regulators that may produce convergent DNA methylation patterns driving specific gene expression profiles. The integration of genomic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic profiling has the potential to spotlight distinct LR-MDS categories on the basis of pathophysiological mechanisms. We performed a comprehensive study of somatic mutations and DNA methylation in a large and clinically well-annotated cohort of treatment-naive patients with LR-MDS at diagnosis from the EUMDS registry (ClinicalTrials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTargeting LMO2-induced autocrine FLT3 signaling to overcome chemoresistance in early T-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Leukemia
January 2025
Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD), School of Translational Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Early T-cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ETP-ALL) is an immature subtype of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) commonly show deregulation of the LMO2-LYL1 stem cell transcription factors, activating mutations of cytokine receptor signaling, and poor early response to intensive chemotherapy. Previously, studies of the Lmo2 transgenic mouse model of ETP-ALL identified a population of stem-like T-cell progenitors with long-term self-renewal capacity and intrinsic chemotherapy resistance linked to cellular quiescence. Here, analyses of Lmo2 transgenic mice, patient-derived xenografts, and single-cell RNA-sequencing data from primary ETP-ALL identified a rare subpopulation of leukemic stem cells expressing high levels of the cytokine receptor FLT3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBenzene-induced hematotoxicity enhances the self-renewal ability of HSPCs in Mll-Af9 mice.
Toxicology
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Chemical Safety and Health, National Institute for Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China; China State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burn and Combined Injury, China. Electronic address:
Patients with benzene-induced leukemia undergo a continuous transformation from myelosuppression to malignant proliferation. However, the underlying mechanisms in this process remain unknown. Our previous studies have shown that the pathways involved in self-renewal capacity of bone marrow (BM) cells in Mll-Af9 mice exposed to benzene for life are significantly activated after severe blood toxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvestigating resistance to 5-Azacytidine and Venetoclax in PDX models of MDS/AML.
Front Oncol
January 2025
BIOCEV, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.
Introduction: Progressing myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) into acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an indication for hypomethylating therapy (HMA, 5-Azacytidine (AZA)) and a BCL2 inhibitor (Venetoclax, VEN) for intensive chemotherapy ineligible patients. Mouse models that engraft primary AML samples may further advance VEN + AZA resistance research.
Methods: We generated a set of transplantable murine PDX models from MDS/AML patients who developed resistance to VEN + AZA and compared the differences in hematopoiesis of the PDX models with primary bone marrow samples at the genetic level.
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!