Defining niche interactions to target chronic myeloid leukemia stem cells

摘要

In this issue of , Godavarthy . describe how the expression of CD44 on the surface of leukemic stem cells (LSC) and E-selectin on bone marrow (BM) endothelium are essential for the engraftment of LSC within the BM niche. They show how this interaction can provide the LSC with protection from imatinib treatment. Importantly, disruption of this axis using an E-selectin inhibitor in combination with imatinib prevents LSC binding to the endothelium and demonstrates superior eradication of LSC in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) compared with imatinib alone.