LAA expression profiles on LSC compared to other tissues

Leukemic stem cells (LSC) might be the source for leukemic disease self-renewal and account for disease relapse after treatment, which makes them a critical target for further therapeutic options. Leukemia associated antigens (LAA) might be suitable structures to be attacked by immunotherapeutic agents. We performed primary AML sample enrichment and microarray studies to define LAA expression levels in AML. We compared the LAA expression in the enriched CD34+CD38- AML fraction to that of enriched HSC of healthy donors and AML bulk cells (CD34+CD38+, CD34-CD38+ and CD34-CD38). Furthermore, we investigated the expression patterns of co-stimulatory molecules in LSC, bulk AML cells and enriched HSC, Conclusion: We demonstrated the differential expression of several LAA in LSC, and their suitability as target structures. We enriched primary AML samples using CD34 and CD38 as markers to compare LAA expression levels of LSC, HSC and AML bulk. LAA expression profiles comparing LSC, HSC and leukemic bulk AML citation: Leukemic progenitor cells are susceptible to targeting by stimulated cytotoxic T cells against immunogenic leukemia-associated antigens Vanessa Schneider, Lu Zhang, Markus Rojewski, Natalie Fekete, Hubert Schrezenmeier, Alexander Erle, Lars Bullinger, Susanne Hofmann, Marlies Götz, Konstanze Döhner, Susann Ihme, Hartmut Döhner, Christian Buske, Michaela Feuring-Buske, Jochen Greiner