Interferon-alpha 2b and vesnarinone influence levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, apoptosis, or interleukin 6 in ESKOL, a hairy cell leukemic cell line. A potential cytokine and oncogene relationship regulating apoptosis is suggested

Sustained long-term remissions with weekly interferon maintenance therapy in hairy cell leukemia

AIM

This study evaluates the efficacy of weekly α-interferon (IFN) maintenance therapy in hairy cell leukaemia (HCL), a disease that remains incurable.

METHOD

Nine patients (six male, three female, aged 41-69 yrs) with hairy cell leukaemia (HCL) received IFN 3mU s.c. once weekly as long-term maintenance therapy after achieving optimal clinical and hematological response to initial therapy with thrice weekly IFN.

RESULTS

Eight of the nine patients are in a state of sustained response at 3-17 years (median 12 years).

CONCLUSION

Our results are similar to those from three previous studies using long-term IFN maintenance therapy, bringing the total number of patients in sustained remission to 118. We hope these reports will lead to a multi-centre, phase III study of IFN maintenance therapy (including pegylated IFN, given less frequently) in HCL patients achieving optimal response to initial therapy, be it IFN or a purine analogue.

Vesnarinone downregulates CXCR4 expression via upregulation of Krüppel-like factor 2 in oral cancer cells

BACKGROUND

We have demonstrated that the stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1; CXCL12)/CXCR4 system is involved in the establishment of lymph node metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Chemotherapy is a powerful tool for the treatment of oral cancer, including oral SCC; however, the effects of chemotherapeutic agents on the expression of CXCR4 are unknown. In this study, we examined the expression of CXCR4 associated with the chemotherapeutic agents in oral cancer cells.

RESULTS

The expression of CXCR4 was examined using 3 different chemotherapeutic agents; 5-fluorouracil, cisplatin, and vesnarinone (3,4-dihydro-6-[4-(3,4-dimethoxybenzoyl)-1-piperazinyl]-2-(1H)-quinolinone) in B88, a line of oral cancer cells that exhibits high levels of CXCR4 and lymph node metastatic potential. Of the 3 chemotherapeutic agents that we examined, only vesnarinone downregulated the expression of CXCR4 at the mRNA as well as the protein level. Vesnarinone significantly inhibited lymph node metastasis in tumor-bearing nude mice. Moreover, vesnarinone markedly inhibited 2.7-kb human CXCR4 promoter activity, and we identified the transcription factor, Krüppel-like factor 2 (KLF2), as a novel vesnarinone-responsive molecule, which was bound to the CXCR4 promoter at positions -300 to -167 relative to the transcription start site. The forced-expression of KLF2 led to the downregulation of CXCR4 mRNA and impaired CXCR4 promoter activity. The use of siRNA against KLF2 led to an upregulation of CXCR4 mRNA.

CONCLUSION

These Results indicate that vesnarinone downregulates CXCR4 via the upregulation of KLF2 in oral cancer.

TIA-1 expression in hairy cell leukemia

We measured T-cell intracellular antigen-1 (TIA-1) expression in neoplastic cells from patients with hairy cell leukemia. Five of nine cases were positive for cytoplasmic TIA-1, with a small, dot-like, granular expression pattern. However, neoplastic cells were granzyme B- and perforin- negative in all cases. Other positive markers were CD20 in 9/9 cases, CD19 in 9/9 cases, DBA44 in 8/9 cases, LeuM5(CD11C) in 8/9 cases, IL-2R(CD25) in 7/9 cases, CD103 in 7/9 cases, FMC7 in 6/9 cases, and tartrate- resistant acid phosphatase in 5/7 cases. We also analyzed TIA-1 expression in 94 B cell lymphomas, including 19 diffuse, large cell lymphomas, 19 mantle cell lymphomas, six follicular lymphomas, two extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphomas, 13 nodal marginal zone B-cell lymphomas, one mediastinal large-cell lymphoma, 19 diffuse small-cell lymphomas, 14 myelomas, and one splenic lymphoma with villous lymphocytes. All cases were negative for TIA-1 expression. Based on these findings, TIA-1 expression in neoplastic cells of low-grade B-cell lymphomas may be a good diagnostic marker for hairy cell leukemia. Moreover, TIA-1 reactivity in lymphomas does not necessarily indicate a T- or NK-cell derivation.

Vesnarinone: a differentiation-inducing anti-cancer drug

Vesnarinone has been shown to be a unique anti-proliferating, differentiation-inducing and apoptosis inducing drug against several human malignancies, including leukemia and several solid tumors. Furthermore, vesnarinone potentiates the effect of conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Combination of differentiation-inducing therapy by vesnarinone with conventional chemotherapy or radiation therapy might be second- or third-line therapy in patients with advanced cancer. Analysis of the molecular mechanisms of the tumor differentiation therapy by vesnarinone might provide selective and targeted molecules for novel tumor dormancy therapy.