Chronic myeloid leukemia patients in prolonged remission after interferon monotherapy have constantly active NK-cells

Event Abstract Back to Event Chronic myeloid leukemia patients in prolonged remission after interferon monotherapy have constantly active NK-cells Mette M. Ilander1, Anna Kreutzman1, Peter Rohon2, Teresa Melo3, Edgar Faber2, Kimmo Porkka1, Jukka Vakkila1 and Satu Mustjoki1* 1 Hematology Research Unit Helsinki, Deparment of medicine, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland 2 University Hospital Olomouc, Department of Hemato-oncology, Czechia 3 Hospital de S. Joao, Portugal Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is caused by a BCR-ABL oncokinase. Without any treatment, the disease transforms to fatal acute leukemia in a few years. Before tyrosine kinase inhibitors, CML patients were treated with IFN-α, and a small proportion of patients responded well. Interestingly, about half of the responding patients were able to discontinue the treatment without disease relapse and be cured. In this study, we aimed to analyze the function of immune cells in well-responded IFN-α treated CML patients in order to understand the putative anti-leukemic effects (IFN-ON (n=5), patients still using IFN-α; IFN-OFF (n=8), patients were off from any treatment and in remission). Compared to healthy controls, IFN-patients seemed to have a higher amount of NK-cells (median 19.6% vs. 13.2%, p=0.11), and especially in IFN-OFF group the proportion of NK-cells was increased (23.5 %, p=0.0031). The phenotype of NK-cells was CD56DIMCD57+CD62Lneg in IFN-OFF group, whereas IFN-ON patients had more immature CD56DIMCD57-CD62L- NK-cells. Interestingly, in IFN-α treated patients the baseline degranulation of NK-cells was higher than in healthy volunteers, but due to small number of patients, the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.13). However, especially IFN-ON patients seem to have active, degranulating NK-cells (19.4% vs. 2.8% in healthy, p=0.05). When stimulated with K562 cells, the in vitro cytotoxicity of NK-cells was poor which is in line with the excessive in vivo baseline activation. No differences were observed in the cytokine secretion. To conclude, IFN-α treated patients in remission have increased number of functionally active NK-cells, which may contribute to good response. Keywords: Chronic myeloid leukemia, NK-cells, Interferon-alpha, Immune function, T-cells Conference: 15th International Congress of Immunology (ICI), Milan, Italy, 22 Aug - 27 Aug, 2013. Presentation Type: Abstract Topic: Translational immunology and immune intervention Citation: Ilander MM, Kreutzman A, Rohon P, Melo T, Faber E, Porkka K, Vakkila J and Mustjoki S (2013). Chronic myeloid leukemia patients in prolonged remission after interferon monotherapy have constantly active NK-cells. Front. Immunol. Conference Abstract: 15th International Congress of Immunology (ICI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fimmu.2013.02.00480 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 28 Mar 2013; Published Online: 22 Aug 2013. * Correspondence: Dr. Satu Mustjoki, Hematology Research Unit Helsinki, Deparment of medicine, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland, satu.mustjoki@helsinki.fi Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Mette M Ilander Anna Kreutzman Peter Rohon Teresa Melo Edgar Faber Kimmo Porkka Jukka Vakkila Satu Mustjoki Google Mette M Ilander Anna Kreutzman Peter Rohon Teresa Melo Edgar Faber Kimmo Porkka Jukka Vakkila Satu Mustjoki Google Scholar Mette M Ilander Anna Kreutzman Peter Rohon Teresa Melo Edgar Faber Kimmo Porkka Jukka Vakkila Satu Mustjoki PubMed Mette M Ilander Anna Kreutzman Peter Rohon Teresa Melo Edgar Faber Kimmo Porkka Jukka Vakkila Satu Mustjoki Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.