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FOXM1 is a therapeutic target for high-risk multiple myeloma
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

FOXM1 is a therapeutic target for high-risk multiple myeloma

Chunyan Gu, Ye Yang, Ramakrishna Sompallae, Hongwei Xu, Van S Tompkins, Carol Holman, Dirk Hose, Hartmut Goldschmidt, Guido Tricot, Fenghuang Zhan, …
Leukemia, Vol.30(4), pp.873-882
04/2016
DOI: 10.1038/leu.2015.334
PMCID: PMC4826574
PMID: 26648534
url
https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2015.334View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The transcription factor forkhead box M1 (FOXM1) is a validated oncoprotein in solid cancers, but its role in malignant plasma cell tumors such as multiple myeloma (MM) is unknown. We analyzed publicly available MM datasets and found that overexpression of FOXM1 prognosticates inferior outcome in a subset (~15%) of newly diagnosed cases, particularly patients with high-risk disease based on global gene expression changes. Follow-up studies using human myeloma cell lines (HMCLs) as the principal experimental model system demonstrated that enforced expression of FOXM1 increased growth, survival and clonogenicity of myeloma cells, whereas knockdown of FOXM1 abolished these features. In agreement with that, constitutive up-regulation of FOXM1 promoted HMCL xenografts in laboratory mice, whereas inducible knockdown of FOXM1 led to growth inhibition. Expression of cyclin dependent kinase 6 (CDK6) and NIMA-related kinase 2 (NEK2) was co-regulated with FOXM1 in both HMCLs and myeloma patient samples, suggesting interaction of these 3 genes in a genetic network that may lend itself to targeting with small-drug inhibitors for new approaches to myeloma therapy and prevention. These results establish FOXM1 as high-risk myeloma gene and provide support for the design and testing of FOXM1-targeted therapies specifically for the FOXM1 High subset of myeloma.
targeted cancer therapy cancer driver gene Plasma-cell neoplasm small-drug inhibitor

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