Cancers, Vol. 11, Pages 2036: Pathways, Processes, and Candidate Drugs Associated with a Hoxa Cluster-Dependency Model of Leukemia

Cancers, Vol. 11, Pages 2036: Pathways, Processes, and Candidate Drugs Associated with a Hoxa Cluster-Dependency Model of Leukemia Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers11122036 Authors: Laura M. Kettyle Charles-Étienne Lebert-Ghali Ivan V. Grishagin Glenda J. Dickson Paul G. O’Reilly David A. Simpson Janet J. Bijl Ken I. Mills Guy Sauvageau Alexander Thompson High expression of the HOXA cluster correlates with poor clinical outcome in acute myeloid leukemias, particularly those harboring rearrangements of the mixed-lineage-leukemia gene (MLLr). Whilst decreased HOXA expression acts as a readout for candidate experimental therapies, the necessity of the HOXA cluster for leukemia maintenance has not been fully explored. Primary leukemias were generated in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells from Cre responsive transgenic mice for conditional deletion of the Hoxa locus. Hoxa deletion resulted in reduced proliferation and colony formation in which surviving leukemic cells retained at least one copy of the Hoxa cluster, indicating dependency. Comparative transcriptome analysis of Hoxa wild type and deleted leukemic cells identified a unique gene signature associated with key pathways including transcriptional mis-regulation in cancer, the Fanconi anemia pathway and cell cycle progression. Further bioinformatics analysis of the gene signature identified a number of candidate FDA-approved drugs for potential repurposing in high HOXA expressing cancers including M...
Source: Cancers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research