HSP70 Inhibitor, YK5, Ablates Blast, Progenitor and Stem Cell Populations in Primary Acute Myelogenous Leukemia Cells

Abstract 2493

Prognosis for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) with traditional chemotherapeutic agents remains poor, most patients relapse and die of their disease. Studies have shown that AML can be originated and maintained by leukemia stem cells (LSCs) and that a high percentage of phenotypically-defined LSCs correlate to especially poor prognosis. Thus, novel therapies that can eliminate LSCs are needed. Upregulation of HSP70 has been described in human cancer cells and is often associated with chemoresistance and poor prognosis. Therefore, HSP70 represents a novel target for cancer therapy. Due to this, we tested a novel inhibitor of tumor-HSP70, YK5, and found that it can induce potent cell death in AML cells including progenitor and stem cell populations with minimal effects in normal hematopoietic cells.

Fifteen primary AML patient samples were treated with YK5 in varying concentrations for 48 hours to determine the LD50 of YK5. The viability of these samples was determined by multiparameter flow cytometry using cell surface markers to distinguish, lymphocytes, blasts, progenitor and stem cell populations in conjunction with Annexin V and 7AAD. Mean LD50 for all samples tested was 4.5μM (CI 95% 2.239–6.853). Three of these samples had very low LD50s below 2.5μM and only one sample demonstrated relative resistance with a LD50 that was greater than 15μM. Notably, progenitor and stem cell populations were also targeted while normal remaining lymphocytes were spared. Furthermore, we found that LSCs in a subset of patient samples treated with YK5 exhibited higher sensitivity to the compound when compared to blast cells. Importantly, treatment of primary AML samples with 5μM YK5 resulted in a 63% decrease in colony forming ability when compared to untreated control (N=5), suggesting that YK5 can impair malignant progenitors. In contrast, normal CD34+ cord blood cells after treatment with 5μM YK5 for 48hrs exhibited a viability of 57% (N=3). Xenotransplant assays are currently ongoing to determine the ability of YK5 to inhibit LSC function. Treatment with YK5 resulted in a decrease in phosphorylation of STAT5, determined by flow cytometry. Taken together, HSP70 inhibition is a promising potential treatment for AML and has the potential to eradicate leukemic stem and progenitor cells while sparing normal hematopoietic cells. Thus, targeting HSP70 in AML appears to hold great promise.

*JFR and KKS contributed equally to this project