Treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells with signaling inhibitors

To identify the molecular targets of treatment, we studied gene expression profile of primary chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells isolated from the peripheral blood of CLL patients and treated in vitro with two distinct signaling inhibitors: 1) Dimethyl fumarate targeting inflammatory pathways 2) VIVIT peptide targeting NFAT transcription factor activation. Overall design: CLL B-cells were negatively selected and purified from patient's total peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), cultured in RPMI with 10% heat inactivated FBS and Pen-Strep and stimulated with DMF 100 µM or VIVIT-11R 10µM for 4 hours and RNAseq was performed. Untreated samples were used as controls.