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CGP 57148 is a compound of the 2-phenylaminopyrimidine class that selectively inhibits the tyrosine kinase activity of the ABL and the platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) protein tyrosine kinases. We previously showed that CGP 57148 selectively kills p210BCR-ABL–expressing cells. To extend these observations, we evaluated the ability of CGP 57148 to inhibit other activated ABL tyrosine kinases, including p185BCR-ABL and TEL-ABL. In cell-based assays of ABL tyrosine phosphorylation, inhibition of ABL kinase activity was observed at concentrations similar to that reported for p210BCR-ABL. Consistent with the in vitro profile of this compound, the growth of cells expressing activated ABL protein tyrosine kinases was inhibited in the absence of exogenous growth factor. Growth inhibition was also observed with a p185BCR-ABL–positive acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) cell line generated from a Philadelphia chromosome–positive ALL patient. As CGP 57148 inhibits the PDGFR kinase, we also showed that cells expressing an activated PDGFR tyrosine kinase, TEL-PDGFR, are sensitive to this compound. Thus, this compound may be useful for the treatment of a variety of BCR-ABL–positive leukemias and for treatment of the subset of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia patients with a TEL-PDGFR fusion protein.

In previous papers, we have shown that Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit, supplemented with a trace amount of the holotoxin (LTB ∗ ) could be used as a potent adjuvant for a nasal influenza HA (haemagglutinin) vaccine in humans 1,2 . The present study was designed to determine whether the effectiveness of a combined LTB ∗ -HA vaccine could be limited by preexisting immunity to LTB and how many times the adjuvant-combined vaccine could be administered intranasally without reducing its protective efficacy in BALB/c, C3H and B10 mice. The magnitude of both nasal and serum Ab responses to HA vaccine was correlated with the degree of protection against virus infection. Higher doses of LTB ∗ -combined vaccine were required for inducing high enough levels of anti-HA Ab responses to provide complete protection in low responder mice. Repeated pretreatments with LTB ∗ alone (more than six times), which provided high levels of preexisting Abs to LTB, inhibited the induction of anti-HA Ab responses and reduced the protective efficacy of the adjuvant-combined vaccine. However, the LTB ∗ -combined vaccine could be given repeatedly (about ten times) to mice without reducing the effectiveness of the adjuvant-combined vaccine. These results suggest that the LTB ∗ -combined nasal influenza vaccine can be given to humans once every few years when an epidemic of influenza may occur.

The bcr-abl oncogene, present in 95% of patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), has been implicated as the cause of this disease. A compound, designed to inhibit the Abl protein tyrosine kinase, was evaluated for its effects on cells containing the Bcr-Abl fusion protein. Cellular proliferation and tumor formation by Bcr-Abl-expressing cells were specifically inhibited by this compound. In colony-forming assays of peripheral blood or bone marrow from patients with CML, there was a 92-98% decrease in the number of bcr-abl colonies formed but no inhibition of normal colony formation. This compound may be useful in the treatment of bcr-abl-positive leukemias.

Trilineage myelodysplasia (TMDS) in de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at initial diagnosis and during remission has not been well recognized yet. In this review we describe the characteristics of de novo AML with TMDS (AML/TMDS) and with myelodysplastic remission marrow (AML/MRM) in view of the in vivo and in vitro disease progression. AML/TMDS was found in ten (10.4%) of 96 patients with de novo AML at initial diagnosis and AML/MRM were also observed in three (5.0%) out of 60 cases in remission after chemotherapy in our hospital between 1984 and 1992. Abnormal karyotypes were seen in six of nine AML/TMDS patients and all of the three AML/MRM. Karyotypic changes occurred in two of AML/TMDS and two of AML/MRM during their clinical course. Using the long term bone marrow culture (LTBMC) system that allowed abnormal clones to survive preferentially to the clone of normal karyotype, latent clones were detected in three patients with AML/TMDS and three of AML/MRM as in the cases of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and AML transformed from MDS (MDS/AML) but not in the typical AML without myelodysplastic changes. Four of these cases exhibited the same karyotypes as seen during the clinical course. Primary abnormal karyotypes prior to clonal evolution were also observed in two of the AML/MRM. Taken together, both AML/TMDS and AML/MRM are similar to MDS/AML with respect to their myelodysplastic background and potential for disease progression and may have progressed to AML from the preceding disease status more rapidly than MDS/AML.

The outcome of sixty-four patients with acute leukemia in first remission who had been treated with either bone marrow transplantation (BMT) or conventional chemotherapy was retrospectively evaluated (a median follow-up of 37 months). Among them, 26 patients (age range; 14-42 years) received allogeneic BMT from HLA-identical siblings and 38 patients (age range; 13-43 years) who had no HLA-identical donors undertook the continued combination chemotherapy. Kaplan-Meier product-limit estimate of actuarial survival of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) patients was 48.9% for the BMT group and 15.7% for the chemotherapy group (p = not significant, NS). For acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients, the survival following BMT was 80.2% and was significantly higher than that of the chemotherapy group of 33.3% (p0.05). The disease-free survival of AML and ALL for the BMT group was 34.3% and 36.5%, respectively, which was higher than that of the chemotherapy group (16.7% and 23.4%, respectively (p = NS)). These findings in our Japanese single institution study suggested that BMT may be the treatment of choice for adult patients with acute leukemia in first remission if they had suitable donors and that more effective therapeutic regimens were necessary for patients without compatible donors in order to obtain the longer remission duration.