Therapeutic targeting of preleukemia cells in a mouse model of NPM1 mutant acute myeloid leukemia

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aax5863
• Publication Date: 2020-01-31T00:05:36Z
• Authors: Hannah J. Uckelmann; Stephanie M. Kim; Eric M. Wong; Charles Hatton; Hugh Giovinazzo; Jayant Y. Gadrey; Andrei V. Krivtsov; Frank G. Rücker; Konstanze Döhner; Gerard M. McGeehan; Ross L. Levine; Lars Bullinger; George S. Vassiliou; Scott A. Armstrong
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; Leukemia, Experimental; Nuclear Proteins; Genetic Therapy; Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase; Chromatin; Mice, Mutant Strains; DNA Methyltransferase 3A; 3. Good health; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Proto-Oncogene Proteins; Mutation; Animals; Preleukemia; DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases; Gene Knock-In Techniques; Nucleophosmin; Myeloid Progenitor Cells; Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein

Taking preventive measures

Recent technological advances have made it possible to detect, in healthy individuals, premalignant blood cells that are likely to progress to hematologic cancer. These advances in early detection have fueled interest in “cancer interception,” the idea that drugs designed to treat advanced cancer might also be useful for cancer prevention. Uckelmann et al. now provide support for this concept in a study of mice genetically predisposed to develop acute myeloid leukemia. Early administration of an epigenetic therapy that had previously been shown to have anticancer activity in advanced leukemia models was able to eliminate preleukemia cells and extend survival of the mice.

Science , this issue p. 586