Wnt signaling plays an important role in stem cell self-renewal and proliferation. Aberrant activation of Wnt signaling and its downstream targets are intimately linked with several types of cancer with colon cancer being the best-studied example. However, recent results also suggest an important role of Wnt signaling in normal as well as leukemic hematopoietic stem cells. Aberrant activation of Wnt signaling and downstream effectors has been demonstrated in acute myeloid leukemia. Here, mutant receptor tyrosine kinases, such as Flt3 and chimeric transcription factors such as promyelocytic leukemia-retinoic acid receptor-a and acute myeloid leukemia1-ETO, induce downstream Wnt signaling events. These findings suggest that the Wnt signaling pathway is an important target in several leukemogenic pathways and may provide a novel opportunity for targeting leukemic stem cells.

Transcriptional deregulation plays a key role in a large array of cancers, and successful targeting of oncogenic transcription factors that sustain diseases has been a holy grail in the field. Acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) driven by chimeric transcription factors encoding retinoic acid receptor alpha fusions is the paradigm of targeted cancer therapy, in which the application of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) treatments have markedly transformed this highly fatal cancer to a highly manageable disease. The extremely high complete remission rate resulted from targeted therapies using ATRA in combination with arsenic trioxide will likely be able to minimise or even totally eliminate the use of highly toxic chemotherapeutic agents in APL. In this article, we will review the molecular basis and the upcoming challenges of these targeted therapies in APL, and discuss the recent advance in our understanding of epigenetics underlying ATRA response and their potential use to further improve treatment response and overcome resistance.

Long-term outcome of acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) patients without Down's syndrome remains poor. Founding mutations and chimeric oncogenes characterize various AMKL subtypes. However, for around one third of all cases the underlying mechanisms of AMKL leukemogenesis are still largely unknown. Recently, an in-frame fusion of meningeoma 1–friend leukemia virus integration 1 (MN1–Fli1) gene was detected in a child with AMKL. We intended to investigate the potential role of this oncofusion in leukemogenesis of acute myeloid leukemia. Strikingly, expression of MN1–Fli1 in murine hematopoietic progenitor cells was sufficient to induce leukemic transformation generating immature myeloid cells with cytomorphology and expression of surface markers typical for AMKL. Systematic structure function analyses revealed FLS and 3′ETS domains of Fli1 as decisive domains for the AMKL phenotype. Our data highlight an important role of MN1–Fli1 in AMKL leukemogenesis and provide a basis for research assessing the value of this oncofusion as a future diagnostic marker and/or therapeutic target in AMKL patients.

The concept of arming antibodies with bioactive payloads for a site-specific therapy of cancer has gained considerable interest in recent years. However, a successful antibody-based targeting approach critically relies on the availability of a tumor-associated target that is not only preferentially expressed in the tumor tissue but is also easily accessible for antibody therapeutics coming from the bloodstream. Here, we perfused the vasculature of healthy and acute myeloid leukemia (AML)-bearing rats with a reactive ester derivative of biotin and subsequently quantified the biotinylated proteins to identify AML-associated bone marrow (BM) antigens accessible from the bloodstream. In total, >1400 proteins were identified. Overall, 181 proteins were >100-fold overexpressed in AML as compared with normal BM. Eleven of the most differentially expressed proteins were further validated by immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopic analyses, including novel antigens highly expressed in AML cells (for example, adaptor-related protein complex 3 β2) and in the leukemia-modified extracellular matrix (ECM) (for example, collagen-VI-α-1). The presented atlas of targetable AML-associated BM proteins provides a valuable basis for the development of monoclonal antibodies that could be used as carriers for a site-specific pharmacodelivery of cytotoxic drugs, cytokines or radionuclides to the BM in AML.