- Jiang, Xi;
- Hu, Chao;
- Ferchen, Kyle;
- Nie, Ji;
- Cui, Xiaolong;
- Chen, Chih-Hong;
- Cheng, Liting;
- Zuo, Zhixiang;
- Seibel, William;
- He, Chunjiang;
- Tang, Yixuan;
- Skibbe, Jennifer;
- Wunderlich, Mark;
- Reinhold, William;
- Dong, Lei;
- Shen, Chao;
- Arnovitz, Stephen;
- Ulrich, Bryan;
- Weng, Hengyou;
- Su, Rui;
- Huang, Huilin;
- Wang, Yungui;
- Li, Chenying;
- Qin, Xi;
- Mulloy, James;
- Zheng, Yi;
- Diao, Jiajie;
- Jin, Jie;
- Li, Chong;
- Liu, Paul;
- He, Chuan;
- Chen, Yuan;
- Chen, Jianjun;
- Lu, Jiuwei
Effective therapy of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains an unmet need. DNA methylcytosine dioxygenase Ten-eleven translocation 1 (TET1) is a critical oncoprotein in AML. Through a series of data analysis and drug screening, we identified two compounds (i.e., NSC-311068 and NSC-370284) that selectively suppress TET1 transcription and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) modification, and effectively inhibit cell viability in AML with high expression of TET1 (i.e., TET1-high AML), including AML carrying t(11q23)/MLL-rearrangements and t(8;21) AML. NSC-311068 and especially NSC-370284 significantly repressed TET1-high AML progression in vivo. UC-514321, a structural analog of NSC-370284, exhibited a more potent therapeutic effect and prolonged the median survival of TET1-high AML mice over three fold. NSC-370284 and UC-514321 both directly target STAT3/5, transcriptional activators of TET1, and thus repress TET1 expression. They also exhibit strong synergistic effects with standard chemotherapy. Our results highlight the therapeutic potential of targeting the STAT/TET1 axis by selective inhibitors in AML treatment.