Acute myeloïde leukemia (AML) is a blood cancer form that originates from an accumulation of immature cells in the bone marrow. For the diagnosis of AML the DNA of the cancer cells are being checked for mutations, a change in the DNA. Furthermore, the shape of the cells and proteins present on the outside of the cells are being checked. Currently, the treatment strategy of AML is intensive chemotherapy. However, this treatment is not always effective in patients and the need for novel treatment strategies remains.
Therefore, we have studied in this thesis of Shanna Hogeling new therapeutic options targeting epigenetic regulators, which are proteins that can alter gene expression without changing the DNA sequence, and the metabolism of the leukemic cells. We focused on discovering the mechanisms of actions of these inhibitors and we characterized which patients would benefit most for specific epigenetic or metabolic inhibitors by using mutation status and protein expression profiles of the AML cells.
Lastly, we used the expression of proteins present on the outside of the leukemic cell to study specific cell populations using various datasets. As AML is a diverse disease with differences between patients and within patients dual treatment strategies should be studied with a focus on targeting epigenetic regulators, metabolism and genetic aberrations of the cancer cells.
Shanna Hogeling is part of MoHAD.
