By Dr. Chinta SidharthanNov 29 2022Reviewed by Aimee Molineux In a recent study published in Nature Communications, researchers used ribonucleic acid sequence data to understand the association between inflammatory cytokines and poor outcomes of pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia .
Treatment with JAK/STAT pathway inhibitors or antibodies that neutralize IL-6 has shown promise in adult AML cases. Understanding the role of IL-6 signaling in pAML and the association of IL-6 with the pAML subtypes with poor clinical outcomes can further the development of broad targeted therapies for various subtypes.
Bone marrow cells from pAML patients expressing high levels of IL-6 and IL-6 receptors were cultured in human bone marrow stromal cells , which replicate the patterns of bone marrow stromal cell expression such as secretion of IL-6, IL-1β, the ligand for receptor-type protein-tyrosine kinase , and macrophage/granulocyte colony-stimulating factors M-CSF, G-CSF, and GM-CSF.
Results The results reported that more than 20% of pAML patients had high levels of IL-6 and higher inflammatory cytokine signaling activity, such as TNF-α, IFNα and IFNβ, and IL-1. These high levels of inflammatory cytokines and signaling activity were also associated with poor outcomes, such as a lower probability of event-free and overall survival for two years.