The anti-leukemic and lipid lowering effects of imatinib are not hindered by statins in CML: a retrospective clinical study and in vitro assessment of lipid-genes transcription

Abstract

Imatinib, which has revolutionized chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treatment, was suggested to improve lipid profile. Statins, a dyslipidemia drug, were reported to potentiate imatinib’s antileukemic effect. However, analysis of imatinib combined with statins is lacking. We have retrospectively analyzed the normalization period of bcr-abl, blood counts, and lipids in 40 CML patients, 19 of which co-treated with statins, during short (<12 months) and prolonged (>12 months) imatinib treatment. Prior statins treatment did not hinder nor sensitized imatinib’s anti-leukemic and lipid-lowering effects. CML cells (K562) treated with 1μM imatinib (24–96 h) were further assessed for the expression of central lipid-related genes by real-time PCR. HMGCoAR, LDL-R, and apobec1 expressions were significantly increased while CETP declined after 48–96 h. To conclude, imatinib produces an independent favorable lipid profile, which is not hindered by statins and is partly mediated via transcription regulation of genes involved in the clearance of plasma lipids.

Keywords:

• Imatinib
• statins
• CML
• lipids

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2016.1228928.