Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allogeneic HSCT) remains a curative treatment for hematological malignancies resistant to other treatment approaches through the unique GVL effect. However, relapse remains a major cause of treatment failure after allogeneic HSCT for patients with high-risk hematological malignancies. Further improvements in exploiting the GVL effect to preven...

BACKGROUND Due to the functional defects in apoptosis signaling molecules or deficient activation of apoptosis pathways, leukemia has become an aggressive disease with poor prognosis. Although the majority of leukemia patients initially respond to chemotherapy, relapse is still the leading cause of death. Hence targeting apoptosis pathway would be a promising strategy for the improved treatment...

Sulforaphane is a dietary isothiocyanate found in cruciferous vegetables showing antileukemic activity. With the purpose of extending the potential clinical impact of sulforaphane in the oncological field, we investigated the antileukemic effect of sulforaphane on blasts from patients affected by different types of leukemia and, taking into account the intrinsically hypoxic nature of bone marro...

PURPOSE To determine whether mTORC2 and rapamycin-insensitive (RI)-mTORC1 complexes are present in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells and to examine the effects of dual mTORC2/mTORC1 inhibition on primitive AML leukemic progenitors. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Combinations of different experimental approaches were used, including immunoblotting to detect phosphorylated/activated forms of elements of ...

A second-generation of purine nucleoside analogs, starting with clofarabine, has been developed in the course of the search for new therapeutic agents for acute childhood leukemia, especially for refractory or relapsed disease. Clofarabine is a hybrid of fludarabine and cladribine, and has shown to have antileukemic activity in acute lymphoblastic leukemia as well as in myeloid disorders. As th...

DNA vaccination and all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) result in a survival advantage in a mouse model of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Depletion of CD4(+) or CD8(+) cells abolished this effect. CD4(+) depletions of long-term survivors resulted in relapse and death within 3 months, thus demonstrating the need of both CD4(+) and CD8(+) subsets for the generation of DNA-driven antileukemic immu...

The objective of this study was to examine the potential of enhancing the antileukemic activity of arsenic trioxide (ATO) by combining it with a folk remedy, crude methanolic extract of Mucuna macrocarpa (CMEMM). Human leukemia cells HL-60, Jurkat, and Molt-3 were treated with various doses of ATO, CMEMM, and combinations thereof for 24 and 48 h. Results indicated that the combination of 2.5 μM...

In vitro antileukemic activity of five glucocorticoids and their cross-resistance pattern in childhood acute lymphoblastic and non-lymphoblastic leukemia were determined by means of the MTT assay in 25 leukemia cell samples of childhood acute leukemias. The equivalent antileukemic concentrations of the drugs tested were: 34 microM hydrocortisone (HC), 8 microM prednisolone (PRE), 1.5 microM met...

Effective presentation of tumor antigens is fundamental to strategies aimed at enrolling the immune system in eradication of residual disease after conventional treatments. Myeloid malignancies provide a unique opportunity to derive dendritic cells (DCs), functioning antigen-presenting cells, from the malignant cells themselves. These may then co-express leukemic antigens together with appropri...