Cancer Metabolism Series with ISCAM on Acute Myeloid Leukaemia

Please join us for the Virtual Pub on Friday, September 19th at 13:00 CEST. We welcome Delfim Duarte, i3s, University of Porto, for a talk entitled, “The ironic role of iron in acute myeloid leukemia: from disease mechanisms to therapy,” followed by a talk on "Tracking CAR-T cell kinetics using dual in vivo bioluminescent imaging to improve therapeutic efficacy in AML," by Marta Serafini, University of Milano-Bicocca, and Alice Pievani, M. Tettamanti Research Centre.

All are welcome!

Abstracts

“The ironic role of iron in acute myeloid leukemia: from disease mechanisms to therapy”

• Delfim Duarte, i3s, University of Porto

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive heterogenous blood cancer characterised by loss of normal blood production and accumulation of malignant blasts. It is the most frequent acute leukemia in adults. Despite recent drug approvals, the overall outcomes of AML are still dismal and curative therapy relies on intensive chemotherapy. There is an unmet need to better understand AML disease mechanisms and develop new therapies. 

Using patient samples and mouse models, we studied how AML remodels the bone marrow microenvironment and impacts on non-malignant hematopoiesis. We found systemic iron metabolism is significantly altered in AML. I will discuss the impact of analysing iron parameters at AML diagnosis and how we can manipulate iron distribution to improve therapy in AML.

"Tracking CAR-T cell kinetics using dual in vivo bioluminescent imaging to improve therapeutic efficacy in AML"

• Marta Serafini, University of Milano-Bicocca, & Alice Pievani, M. Tettamanti Research Centre

CAR-T therapy has revolutionised the treatment of B-cell malignancies but remains largely ineffective in AML, partly due to inefficient trafficking of infused cells to the leukemic bone marrow, where therapy-resistant leukemic stem cells reside. To overcome this, strategies such as chemokine receptor engineering are being explored to enhance the speed and specificity of CAR-T cell homing. Dual bioluminescence imaging enables real-time, non-invasive tracking of CAR-T cell dynamics and anti-leukemic activity in vivo. When combined with humanized bone marrow models, this system offers a more physiologically relevant platform for the development and preclinical evaluation of next-generation CAR therapies in AML.