Journal Facts

Journal
BoneKEy Knowledge Environment
ISSN
1940-8692
Volume
11
Year
2014

Article Facts

Title
AML and CML are regulated differently by cells within the bone marrow microenvironment
DOI
10.1038/bonekey.2014.27
Author
Online Date
05/07/2014

Article Links

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AML and CML are regulated differently by cells within the bone marrow microenvironment


DOI:10.1038/bonekey.2014.27

Treatment that can target specific niches in the bone marrow microenvironment (BMM) could help prevent relapse of both acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) following initially successful chemotherapy.

In this study, Krause et al. investigate the potential of activating the parathyroid hormone receptor specifically within osteoblasts within the BMM. An opposing effect was observed in the two diseases; in AML, myeloproliferative neoplasia was attenuated through the BCR-ABL1 oncogene, while in CML, it was enhanced through the MLL-AF9 oncogene. The authors suggest that this occurs because of the different effects that TGF-B1 has on the leukemia stem cells (LSCs) residing in the BMM within the two different patient populations.

When wild-type mice with CML-like myeloproliferative neoplasia were treated with parathyroid hormone (PTH), their LSCs showed a 15-fold drop. Furthermore, PTH treatment of mice with an impaired immune system led to lower levels of engraftment of primary human CML cells. If a similar effect were to occur in patients with CML, this may enhance cure rates after current gold standard treatment.

Editor’s comment: The data from Krause and colleagues indicate that targeting the bone marrow microenvironment with PTH might be a complementary approach to tumor-cell specific therapeutics in order to efficiently treat chronic myeloid leukemia.

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