Make Your Cake and Eat It: Refueling of Immune Fitness in AML Post Allo-HCT Using Baking Soda.

Alex Tonks

doi:10.20900/immunometab20210005

Abstract

Although there has been a recent renaissance in the availability of new therapeutic options for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), survival rates remain low coupled with a high incidence of relapse. Enhancing T cell and immune function has become an effective therapeutic approach in hematological malignancies. However, AML cells can modulate the bone marrow microenvironment by changing extracellular nutrient and biochemical availability which can metabolically regulate immune function. Here we review the findings by Uhl et al. showing that T cell metabolism and function can be boosted by treatment with sodium bicarbonate to counteract the metabolic changes induced by lactic acid produced by leukemia cells.

Highlights

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive hematological malignancy arising from developmental arrest of cells of the myeloid lineage
The disease is characterized by a dominant clone of immature cells which rapidly accumulates in the bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood resulting in the failure of normal hematopoiesis
We recently showed that reactive oxygen species (ROS) which is inappropriately produced by NAPDH oxidase (NOX2) on the surface of AML cells, can alter AML cell metabolism to support proliferation [9]

Summary

Introduction

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive hematological malignancy arising from developmental arrest of cells of the myeloid lineage. The recent study by Uhl et al published in Science Translational Medicine has suggested that the failure of T cells in the allo-HCT recipient maybe related to impaired activation and metabolic activity of T cells imparted indirectly by the leukemia cells themselves [7].

Results

Conclusion