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No description available.

Acute myeloid leukaemia is a clonal disorder characterised by recurrent chromosomal translocations. One of the commonest, is the t(8;21) which results in part of the AML1 gene being juxtaposed to most of the ETO gene with the resultant chimeric protein, AML1-ETO, acting predominantly as a transcriptional repressor. Despite the extensive literature available, the exact mechanism by which the chimeric protein results in AML has not been fully elucidated. By using exon arrays and high throughput sequencing as tools it was hoped to gain further insights into the molecular basis of this disease. Gene expression profiling using the exon arrays highlighted molecular pathways and specific genes that play a key role in the pathogenesis in t(8;21). Exon arrays were also used to profile individual exon expression of the ETO gene. This demonstrated that the genomic breakpoint of ETO in the t(8;21) is variable between different patients. This technique also resulted in the discovery of a new exon in the ETO gene. This novel exon results in formation of alternative transcripts of AML1-ETO and was shown in mouse models to play a key role in leukaemogenesis. Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by high throughput sequencing revealed novel aspects of AML1-ETO binding. A number of novel genes that bind AML1-ETO were recognized and in conjunction with the expression data, a number of hypothesis on how AML1-ETO binding effects gene expression are made.

HSPC1 (Hsp90), a member of the anti-apoptotic Heat Shock Protein (HSP) family appears to play a pivotal role in the development and maintenance of several tumour cell characteristics and as a result has become a target for novel anti-cancer therapies. HSPC1 inhibitors have been tested in clinical trials on a wide variety of cancer types with moderate success. However, despite recent advantages in HSPC1 inhibitor development, the effects of these drugs are not consistent. A number of factors may play a role in determining cell sensitivity to these inhibitors. As Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) is such a heterogeneous disease with great variation in baseline HSP levels and other proteins amongst the patient cohort, it would not be unreasonable to assume that HSPC1 inhibitors may have varying success as a treatment strategy for this disease. The present study examined the effects of four HSPC1 inhibitors on primary CLL cells, as well as cells from healthy control subjects, and analysed a number of HSPC1 client proteins to assess the efficacy of these inhibitors. Great variation in cellular response to these drugs was observed in both CLL and healthy control subjects. Analysis of HSPC1 client proteins in these cells including ZAP-70, Akt, NF-kB and HSPA1A, revealed that HSPC1 inhibitors do not effect client protein levels in all samples. The results suggest that these inhibitors should not be considered as a universal treatment strategy for CLL and provide a basis for further study into elucidating the mechanisms behind HSPC1 inhibitor resistance. The final aim of this work was to investigate the role of the microenvironment in CLL progression, where a co-culture system was used as an in-vitro tool. Whilst consistent data was obtained using cell lines, and showed that microenvironmental factors promoted resistance to HSPC1 inhibitors, use of primary CLL cells in this model produced inconsistent data, again highlighting the heterogeneity of the disease.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.