NCE

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia in adults and a very serious disease. Most AML cells arise from a group of special stem cells, named leukemia stem cells (LSCs). One major reason for treatment failure is that LSCs are relatively resistant to current treatments. Although most leukemia cells are killed by treatment, resistant LSCs will survive to regenerate additional leukemia cells and cause a recurrence of leukemia. Recently, we have developed a small molecule that can recognize and bind to AML LSCs. We have also developed tiny particles named nanomicelles. These nanomicelles have a size of about 1-2/100th of one micron (one millionth of a meter), and can be loaded with chemotherapy drug called daunorubicin that can kill LSCs. In this project, we will coat the drug-loaded nanomicelles with small molecules that specifically bind and kill LSCs. In patient’s body, these drug-loaded nanomicelles will work like “smart bombs”, and deliver a high concentration of daunorubicin to kill LSCs. Over the last one year, we found that daunorubicin-loaded nanomicelles could significantly increase the blood daunorubicin concentration by 20-35 times after intravenous administration. This is clinically significant as leukemia cells and leukemia stem cells are mainly located inside blood vessels. Therefore, increase in blood daunorubicin concentration by nanomicelles means leukemia and leukemia stem cells are exposed to 20-35 times more daunorubicin than regular chemotherapy. one of the major toxicity of daunorubicin is toxicity to the heart. As acute myeloid leukemia usually occurs in elderly patients, many of them already have heart diseases that prevent them from receiving the most effective chemotherapeutic drug daunorubicin. We found that, when compared to the standard daunorubicin, daunorubicin in nanomicelle has 3-5 folds less toxicity to the heart. In addition, the toxicity to other vital organs, such as liver and spleen, is significantly decreased. Compared to the standard daunorubicin, daunorubicin in nanomicelles dramatically increases the drug efficacy in killing cancer cells and prolonging the survival in animal models.