Anti-Leukemia Effect of Rapamycin Alone or Plus Daunorubicin on Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cell Lines

Abstract 3256

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is an evolutionarily conserved serine-threonine kinase that integrates signals from multiple inputs, including growth factors, amino acids, and intracellular energy supply, to regulate diverse cellular functions, such as transcription, ribosome biogenesis, translation initiation, and autophagic cell death (autophagy). Aberrant activation of the mTOR signaling pathway has been demonstrated in several tumors, including the majority of acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL). The potential anti-leukaemia effect of mTOR inhibitors has received some attention so far in ALL. In this study, we aimed to assess the anti-leukemic activity of Rapamycin (RAPA), an mTOR inhibitor, alone and in combination with daunorubicin (DNR). Here, we demonstrated that RAPA in concentrations of 1–100 nmol/L significantly inhibited the proliferation of Ph+ ALL cell line SUP-B15, whereas exerted poor effect on Ph- ALL cell line CEM. However, RAPA at a dose of 50 nmol/L significantly intensified the inhibition induced by DNR on two ALL cell lines. The synergistic effect was associated with regulation of autophagy and apoptosis, blockage of cell cycle progression in the G1 phase. We also reported that the consequence of DNR-treatment induced the overexpression of the mTOR signaling pathway in two ALL cell lines and primary leukemia cells in vitro, whereas RAPA effectively eliminated this deleterious side effect of the DNR and might enhance DNR ability to kill drug–resistant cancer. Altogether, our results suggested that DNR in combination with RAPA was more effective in the treatment of ALL than DNR alone. Therefore, combination of classical induction chemotherapy with an inhibitor of the mTOR kinase could be a promising strategy in future treatment of ALL.