Therapeutic Vulnerabilities in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) with TP53 Alterations

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow with a low two‐year survival rate. Standard chemotherapy achieves complete remission in 60–80% of patients, but 20–30% patients relapse due to leukemia stem cells (LSCs) that can self‐renew and recapitulate disease. AML with TP53 alterations has a lower prognosis with survival rates of 0–10% at one year. In vitro drug screens have identified drugs to target AML, but none have studied the effect of these therapies on LSCs with TP53 alterations. These in vitro drug screens include Crizotinib, Elesclomol, AZD1480, GW2580, Venetoclax, and Entrectinib. Crizotinib, AZD1480, GW2580, Venetoclax, and Entrectinib are signaling pathway inhibitors. Elesclomol induces oxidative stress and apoptosis in cancer cells. The goal of this research is to understand the molecular mechanisms of self‐renewal and therapeutic vulnerabilities in LSCs of AML with TP53 alterations. Specifically, we investigate whether these agents target LSCs from AML with TP53 alterations. We performed in vitro viability and in vitro colony forming assays (CFAs) on primary human AML samples with TP53 alterations, plating them with drugs or vehicle control. Furthermore, we used CYTOF to assess the effects of each drug on signaling within leukemia subpopulations. Crizotinib proved to be effective in reducing in vitro viability, in vitro CFAs, and affecting the expression of immunophenotypic markers, such as CD34 and CD123, which are markers for leukemia stem cell populations. Our data reveals cell‐type specific effects of Crizotinib in human AML with TP53 alterations. Our findings suggest that Crizotinib may be an effective therapy for patients with AML with TP53 alterations. Support or Funding Information This research was supported and funded by: NIH/NIGMS MARC U* STAR T34 HHS 00026 National Research Service Award to UMBC, Summer Research at the University of Minnesota Medical School NIH HLBI 2R25HL088728‐11A1, Dr. Colin Campbell, Dr. Craig Henke, American Cancer Society Mentored Research Scholar Grant (MSRG‐16‐195‐01‐DDC), Frederick A. Deluca Foundation, CTSI K to R01 Award, NIH/NCATS, Lois and Richard King Assistant Professorship in Medicine, Division of Hematology, Oncology, Transplantation, Dept. of Medicine, University of Minnesota University of Minnesota Foundation Donors