Achievement of Total Cell Kill on leukemia

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K15516
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 50010:Tumor biology-related
• Research Institution: Kawasaki Medical School
• Principal Investigator: Okamoto Shuichiro 川崎医科大学, 医学部, 准教授 (10529035)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 白血病 / 抗癌剤抵抗性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, we studied the role of environmental factors in the bone marrow to clarify the mechanism of anticancer drug resistance. In particular, we focused on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), an important signaling factor between leukemic cells and vascular endothelial cells in the bone marrow, which has been reported to be associated with chemoresistance of leukemic cells, but the details were unknown. Using knockout cells, we investigated how VEGF affects the chemoresistance of leukemia cells. Our analysis revealed that VEGF does not have enough efficacy to induce chemoresistance directly in leukemia cells. On the other hand, we have shown that VEGF indirectly induces chemoresistance by forming a vascular niche that protects leukemic cells from anticancer drugs.

Free Research Field

血液腫瘍

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究課題では、骨髄内の環境因子による抗癌剤耐性化のメカニズム解明に取り組んだ。骨髄内環境は極めて複雑で解析が困難であるため、生体外で骨髄内環境を再現できる培養環境を確立して解析を進めた。その結果、抗癌剤感受性における血管内皮細胞増殖因子(VEGF)の役割を明らかにした。また。本課題研究中に確立した骨髄内環境を再現した培養方法をさらに発展させて、抗癌剤抵抗性の解析を継続している。