The simultaneous inhibition of the mTOR and MAPK pathways with Gnetin-C induces apoptosis in acute myeloid leukemia

Publication date: 1 August 2017
Source:Cancer Letters, Volume 400
Author(s): J. Luis Espinoza, Mahmoud I. Elbadry, Masafumi Taniwaki, Kenichi Harada, Ly Quoc Trung, Noriharu Nakagawa, Akiyoshi Takami, Ken Ishiyama, Takuji Yamauchi, Katsuto Takenaka, Shinji Nakao
Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a clinically heterogeneous disease that is frequently associated with relapse and a poor prognosis. Among the various subtypes, AML with the monosomal karyotype (AML-MK) has an extremely unfavorable prognosis. We performed screening to identify antitumor compounds that are capable of inducing apoptosis in primary leukemia cells harboring the AML-MK karyotype and identified a naturally occurring stilbene, Gnetin-C, with potent anti-tumor activities against AML cells from patients with various cytogenetic abnormalities, including patients with the AML-MK karyotype. Gnetin-C simultaneously inhibits the ERK1/2 and the AKT/mTOR pathways, two signals that are essential for the survival of leukemia cells. A combination of Gnetin-C with low doses of chemotherapeutic drugs led to synergistic anti-tumor effects against AML cells. In an immunodeficient mouse model of human leukemia, Gnetin-C attenuated the formation of leukemia, depleted leukemia cells and improved survival. These findings suggest that Gnetin-C has antitumor activities in AML and supports the therapeutic potential of blocking two different pathways in AML.



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