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Leukemic stem cells of acute myeloid leukemia patients carrying NPM1 mutation are candidates for targeted immunotherapy

Leukemia volume 28, pages 1759–1762 (2014)Cite this article

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Targeting minimal residual disease (MRD) to prevent relapse is one of the major challenges in treatment of acute leukemias. Leukemic stem cells (LSCs) seem to host biological properties that render them resistant to chemotherapy and thus might be responsible for MRD.1 Because traditional chemotherapy often fails to eliminate LSC, development of novel therapeutics is essential for the eradication of the complete leukemic cell fraction. An immunotherapeutic approach could be one strategy to eliminate residual leukemic cells.

Leukemia-associated antigens (LAAs) constitute targets for immunotherapeutic approaches as they are involved in cell differentiation and proliferation mechanisms.2 LAAs like RHAMM, proteinase 3 and Wilms’ tumor antigen 1 (WT1) were tested in clinical peptide vaccination trials revealing immunological and clinical responses in patients with different hematological malignancies.3

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG GR2676/3-1) and the Else Kröner-Fresenius Stiftung (2011-A63).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine III, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    V Schneider, L Zhang, L Bullinger, S Hofmann, M Götz, U Botzenhardt, K Döhner, H Döhner & J Greiner

  2. Department of Oncology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    L Zhang

  3. Institute of Clinical Transfusion Medicine and Immunogenetics Ulm, German Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service Baden-Württemberg–Hessen and Institute of Transfusion Medicine, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    M Rojewski, M Wiesneth & H Schrezenmeier

  4. Department of Pathology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    T F E Barth

  5. Department of Internal Medicine, Diakonie Hospital Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    J Greiner

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  1. V Schneider
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  2. L Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J Greiner.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Author contributions

VS, LZ, JG and SH designed the study and wrote the manuscript, VS, LZ, JG, LB and TB analyzed the data, VS, LZ, MR, MG, AL and UB performed the experiments, MW, KD, HS and HD provided advice on the study.

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Schneider, V., Zhang, L., Bullinger, L. et al. Leukemic stem cells of acute myeloid leukemia patients carrying NPM1 mutation are candidates for targeted immunotherapy. Leukemia 28, 1759–1762 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2014.116

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