Abstract
It has been known for many years that arsenic trioxide (As2O3; ATO) is an effective therapy for acute promyelocytic leukemia but has little activity against other forms of the disease. ATO has diverse modes of action, but is well known to generate high levels of reactive oxygen species in cells which are believed to be causal in many of its biologic actions.Citation1 ROS can both activate and suppress signaling through multiple intracellular pathways based on the amount and duration of ROS production.Citation2 As the basal activity of the MEK1/2-ERK1/2 pathway is often high in acute myeloid leukemias, and that ATO is known to stimulate MEK1/2-ERK1/2 signaling in leukemia, the authors investigated whether knock down of the downstream effector of ERK1/2, RSK1, could enhance the anti-leukemic activity of ATO.Citation3,Citation4
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
Acknowledgments
PD is funded by R01 DK52825 and R01 CA150214.