Although chemotherapy has been improved for leukemia, patients with MLL-rearranged (MLL-r) leukemia exhibit poor treatment response and prognosis. A work in Haematologica conducted by Dr. Ruey-Bing Yang’s group showed that SCUBE1 plays a critical pathogenic function in MLL-r leukemia by acting as a FLT3 coreceptor in facilitating the interaction between FLT3 ligand and FLT3, augmenting downstream LYN-AKT activation for leukemic cell survival and proliferation. SCUBE1 is a potential target for immunotherapy in MLL-r leukemia because anti-SCUBE1 conjugated with antimitotic agent MMAE leads to cell killing specifically on MLL-r leukemia.

For further information: https://www.ibms.sinica.edu.tw/en/news/2022-444.html
Article Link: https://haematologica.org/article/view/haematol.2022.281151