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Cancer epigenetics

Reading the future of leukaemia

Nature volume 543, pages 186–187 (2017)Cite this article

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The identification of the regulatory protein ENL as essential to an aggressive form of leukaemia provides insight into transcriptional regulation and highlights potential avenues for therapy. See Letters p.265 & p.270

Blood cancers are frequently driven by chromosomal translocations that generate disease-causing fusion proteins — formed by the joining of fragments of two proteins. Fusion proteins that involve the regulatory protein mixed lineage leukaemia (MLL) are commonly found in aggressive paediatric leukaemias and are associated with poor prognosis1. There is, therefore, a great need to develop therapeutic strategies for leukaemias that involve MLL-rearranged (MLL-r) fusion proteins. In this issue, Erb et al.2 (page 270) and Wan et al.3 (page 265) converge on the identification of the protein ENL as a crucial factor for the viability of MLL-r cells in leukaemia.

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Figure 1: The protein ENL is crucial for MLL-rearranged leukaemia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alex W. Wilkinson and Or Gozani are in the Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.,

    Alex W. Wilkinson & Or Gozani

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  1. Alex W. Wilkinson
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  2. Or Gozani
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Correspondence to Or Gozani.

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Competing interests

O.G. is a co-founder of EpiCypher, Inc. and Athelas Therapeutics, Inc.

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Wilkinson, A., Gozani, O. Reading the future of leukaemia. Nature 543, 186–187 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21894

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