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Leukemia (2003) 17, 987-990. doi:10.1038/sj.leu.2402858 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nm23 gene was isolated as a metastasis suppressor gene that exhibits low expression in high-level metastatic cancer cells. Its gene is related to the prognosis of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). In this study, we examined the expression of nm23-H1 protein on the lymphoma cell surface of NHL. In 28 of 108 cases (25.9%), we observed ≥20% of cell surface nm23-H1 protein expression and expression was especially high in peripheral T cell lymphomas and extranodal NK/T cell lymphomas. We also observed a significant correlation between serum nm23-H1 level and cell surface nm23-H1 expression levels. In patients with high levels of cell surface nm23-H1 expression, overall and progression-free survival rates were significantly lower than those in patients with low surface nm23-H1 expression levels. When surface nm23-H1 and serum nm23-H1 were combined, patients with high levels of both exhibited a poorer prognosis than patients with a high level of one or the other. These results indicate that in addition to serum nm23-H1, cell surface nm23-H1 may be used as a prognostic factor in planning a treatment strategy. The nm23-H1 protein appears to be intimately related to biological aggressiveness of lymphoma and, therefore, might be a molecular target of NHL treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard chemotherapy has been ineffective for improving the poor 10-year survival rate of patients with indolent lymphoma. However, a wider choice of therapeutic modalities has become recently available, including immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies and allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Accordingly, a sensitive prognostic indicator is required to identify high-risk patients and to help design new therapeutic approaches for them. We previously reported that the serum nm23-H1 protein level was an independent prognostic factor for aggressive lymphoma. The present study was performed to assess the clinical implications of this protein on indolent lymphoma and whether it can be used to classify the aggressiveness of the disease in order to assist in the individualization of therapy. A total of 130 patients with indolent lymphoma were enrolled in this multicenter study. The serum nm23-H1 protein level was significantly higher in patients with indolent lymphoma than in a normal control group. In addition, indolent lymphoma patients with higher nm23-H1 levels had worse overall and progression-free survival rate than those with lower nm23-H1 levels. Therefore, nm23-H1 in serum may be useful for identifying a distinct group of patients at high risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various alkyl ethyleneglycophospholipids, i.e., alkyl phospholipids, with ethyleneglycol or its congener in place of glycerol as a molecular backcone, were synthesized and their effects on cell proliferation and differentiation of cultured human (HL-60) and mosue (Ml) myeloid leukemia cells were studied. On incubation with alkyl ethyleneglycophospholipids, proliferation of both cell lines was inhibited and the cells were induced to differentiate into morphologically and functionally mature granulocytes and macrophages. Among the compounds tested, dodecyl ethyleneglycophospholipid with a pyridinioethyl group was the most effective in induction of differentiation of both cell lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alkyl ethyleneglycophospholipids induced differentiation in vitro of mouse myeloid leukemia M1 cells into mature granulocytes and macrophages. The compounds also prolonged the survival of syngeneic SL mice inoculated with M1 cells. Although in mice with florid leukemia these compounds alone scarcely affected survival, administration of dodecyl ethyleneglycophospholipid with pyridinioethyl as a polar group plus actinomycin D significantly prolonged survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]