Review

Epigenetics in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Pathogenesis and Treatment Response

Saruna^1,*, Kexin Li^2,*,✉ , and Xiantao Meng^1,✉

¹Ordos Institute of Technology, Ordos, 017000, China. ²School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010010, China.

* These authors contributed equally.
✉ Correspondence
Kexin Li and Xiantao Meng, School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, 24 Zhaojun Road, Saihan District, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, 010010, China. Phone: +86-13644846120. Email: [email protected].
Received: March 21, 2020. Accepted: December 25, 2020. Published online: January 18, 2021.
Cite this paper: Saruna, Kexin Li, Xiantao Meng. (2020) Epigenetics in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Pathogenesis and Treatment Response. Global Journal of Life Sciences. 2021, 2(1):10-19. https://naturescholars.com/gjls.020102. https://doi.org/10.46633/gjls.020102.
Copyright © 2021 by Scholars Publishing, LLC.

Abstract

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which is characterized by arrest of leukocyte differentiation at the promyelocyte stage due to a specific chromosomal translocation t(15;17) in myeloid cells and generates the oncogenic PML-RARα fusion protein. All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is essential for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) treatment. It has been reported that ATRA induces degradation of the PML-RARα in APL cells and restores normal RAR transcriptional programs. The PML-RARA fusion protein has been proposed to recruit epigenetic modifiers. The epigenetic regulation has a critical role in normal physiologic hematopoietic stem cell lineage committed progenitors; its dysregulation is an important mechanism of pathogenesis of AML. The primary aim of this review was to evaluate the involvement of different epigenetic mechanisms in PML-RARa-induced acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) pathogenesis and treatment response.

Key words: Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, PML-RARΑ Fusion Protein, All-Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA), Epigenetics.