Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) are considered to be the root of relapse for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Conventional chemotherapeutic drugs fail to eliminate LSCs. Therefore, new therapeutic strategies eliminating LSCs are urgently needed. Our results showed that low-dose Triptolide (TPL) enhanced the anti-AML activity of Idarubicin (IDA) in vitro against LSC-like cells (CD34 + CD38- KG1αand CD34 + CD38- kasumi-1 cells) and CD34+ primary AML cells, while sparing normal cells. Inspiringly, the combination treatment with low-dose TPL and IDA was also effective against CD34 + blasts from AML patients with FLT3-ITD mutation, which is an unfavorable risk factor for AML patients. Moreover, the combination of TPL and IDA induced a remarkable suppression of human leukemia growth in a xenograft mouse model. Mechanistically, the enhanced effect of low dose TPL on IDA against LSCs was attributed to inhibiting DNA damage repair response. Thus, our study may provide a theoretical basis to facilitate the development of a novel LSCs-targeting strategy for AML.Graphical abstract.
Keywords: Acute myeloid leukemia; DNA damage repair; Idarubicin; Leukemia stem cells; Triptolide.