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Inhibition of eIF4E with ribavirin cooperates with common chemotherapies in primary acute myeloid leukemia specimens

Leukemia volume 25, pages 1197–1200 (2011)Cite this article

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Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common type of acute leukemia in adults and it is associated with poor outcomes. Typical induction strategies involve treatment with cytarabine (Ara-C) along with an anthracycline, either idarubicin or daunorubicin, and is referred to as 7+3 therapy.1 This strategy can result in an approximately 70% complete remission rate, but of these, about 70% will relapse.1 Further confounding the difficulty in inducing remissions is the morbidity associated with this treatment regimen. Many patients over the age of 60, who are the majority of AML patients, cannot tolerate this treatment modality.1 Thus, it is imperative to develop novel strategies to treat AML.

The eukaryotic translation initiation factor eIF4E is overexpressed in many cancers, including the M4 and M5 FAB subtypes of AML.2, 3 Elevated eIF4E levels are generally correlated with poor prognosis in these cancers.2, 3 eIF4E affects gene expression post-transcriptionally by enhancing the mRNA export and/or translation of specific growth promoting transcripts.2, 3, 4, 5 Both of these activities contribute to the oncogenic potential of eIF4E and both require the ability of eIF4E to associate with the 5′ 7-methyl guanosine cap (m7G) structure found on mRNAs.4, 5

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for help and advice from Josée Hebert. We thank Christian Charbonneau for technical expertize in confocal microscopy. KLBB holds a Canada Research Chair and this work was supported by a Translational Research Program grant from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. IRIC receives infrastructure support from the FRSQ and CIHR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Institute of Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC), Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

    B C Kraljacic, M Arguello, A Amri, G Cormack & K Borden

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  1. B C Kraljacic
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  2. M Arguello
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  3. A Amri
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  4. G Cormack
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Correspondence to K Borden.

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Kraljacic, B., Arguello, M., Amri, A. et al. Inhibition of eIF4E with ribavirin cooperates with common chemotherapies in primary acute myeloid leukemia specimens. Leukemia 25, 1197–1200 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2011.57

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