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Jen WY, Konopleva M, Pemmaraju N. Tagraxofusp, a first-in-class CD123-targeted agent: Five-year postapproval comprehensive review of the literature. Cancer 2024; 130:2260-2271. [PMID: 38620053 DOI: 10.1002/cncr.35315] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2024] [Revised: 03/11/2024] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 04/17/2024]
Abstract
Tagraxofusp is a first-in-class CD123-directed conjugate of an amended diphtheria toxin platform and recombinant interleukin 3. Binding and subsequent internalization of the drug result in cell death via disruption of intracellular protein synthesis. CD123 is a surface marker that is expressed in several hematological malignancies, especially blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), where its expression is ubiquitous. A pivotal study of tagraxofusp in BPDCN resulted in its approval for the treatment of BPDCN, the first treatment approved for this indication. Since the introduction of tagraxofusp, research has focused on the management of adverse effects, combination therapy to improve outcomes in fit patients, and dosing and combination strategies to mitigate toxicities while preserving efficacy, especially among older patients. The successful targeting of CD123 in BPDCN has also encouraged research into a variety of other CD123-positive hematological neoplasms, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and informed the development of other novel agents targeting CD123. This review examines the clinical data leading to the development and approval of tagraxofusp in BPDCN, how it is being used in combination to improve outcomes in BPDCN and AML, and its developing role in other hematological malignancies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Ying Jen
- Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Marina Konopleva
- Department of Oncology, Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center, Bronx, New York, USA
| | - Naveen Pemmaraju
- Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
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Hu X, Ediriwickrema A, Saleem A, Tan B, Pemmaraju N, Mannis GN. CD38 and BCL2 expression guides treatment with daratumumab and venetoclax in tagraxofusp-refractory blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) featuring dynamic loss of CD123. Leuk Res 2024; 139:107479. [PMID: 38492495 DOI: 10.1016/j.leukres.2024.107479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2024] [Accepted: 03/09/2024] [Indexed: 03/18/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyi Hu
- Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Asiri Ediriwickrema
- Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Atif Saleem
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Brent Tan
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Naveen Pemmaraju
- Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Gabriel N Mannis
- Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
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Fu D, Zhang B, Wu S, Zhang Y, Xie J, Ning W, Jiang H. Prognosis and Characterization of Immune Microenvironment in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Through Identification of an Autophagy-Related Signature. Front Immunol 2021; 12:695865. [PMID: 34135913 PMCID: PMC8200670 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.695865] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2021] [Accepted: 05/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most common hematopoietic malignancies that has an unfavorable outcome and a high rate of relapse. Autophagy plays a vital role in the development of and therapeutic responses to leukemia. This study identifies a potential autophagy-related signature to monitor the prognoses of patients of AML. Transcriptomic profiles of AML patients (GSE37642) with the relevant clinical information were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) as the training set while TCGA-AML and GSE12417 were used as validation cohorts. Univariate regression analyses and multivariate stepwise Cox regression analysis were respectively applied to identify the autophagy-related signature. The univariate Cox regression analysis identified 32 autophagy-related genes (ARGs) that were significantly associated with the overall survival (OS) of the patients, and were mainly rich in signaling pathways for autophagy, p53, AMPK, and TNF. A prognostic signature that comprised eight ARGs (BAG3, CALCOCO2, CAMKK2, CANX, DAPK1, P4HB, TSC2, and ULK1) and had good predictive capacity was established by LASSO–Cox stepwise regression analysis. High-risk patients were found to have significantly shorter OS than patients in low-risk group. The signature can be used as an independent prognostic predictor after adjusting for clinicopathological parameters, and was validated on two external AML sets. Differentially expressed genes analyzed in two groups were involved in inflammatory and immune signaling pathways. An analysis of tumor-infiltrating immune cells confirmed that high-risk patients had a strong immunosuppressive microenvironment. Potential druggable OS-related ARGs were then investigated through protein–drug interactions. This study provides a systematic analysis of ARGs and develops an OS-related prognostic predictor for AML patients. Further work is needed to verify its clinical utility and identify the underlying molecular mechanisms in AML.
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Affiliation(s)
- Denggang Fu
- Department of Pediatrics, The Wells Center for Pediatric Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Biyu Zhang
- School of Pharmacy and Life Science, Jiujiang University, Jiujiang, China
| | - Shiyong Wu
- Department of Pediatrics, The Wells Center for Pediatric Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Yinghua Zhang
- Department of Pediatrics, The Wells Center for Pediatric Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Jingwu Xie
- Department of Pediatrics, The Wells Center for Pediatric Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,The IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Wangbin Ning
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Hua Jiang
- Department of Pediatrics, The Wells Center for Pediatric Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
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Wang SY, Thomassen K, Kurch L, Opitz S, Franke GN, Bach E, Platzbecker U, Kayser S. Combination of Tagraxofusp and Azacitidine Is an Effective Option for Relapsed Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation. CLINICAL LYMPHOMA MYELOMA & LEUKEMIA 2021; 21:e579-e582. [PMID: 33795208 DOI: 10.1016/j.clml.2021.02.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2021] [Revised: 02/11/2021] [Accepted: 02/18/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Song-Yau Wang
- Medical Clinic and Policlinic I, Hematology and Cellular Therapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Katrin Thomassen
- Medical Clinic and Policlinic I, Hematology and Cellular Therapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Lars Kurch
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sabine Opitz
- Department of Diagnostics, Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Georg-Nikolaus Franke
- Medical Clinic and Policlinic I, Hematology and Cellular Therapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Enrica Bach
- Medical Clinic and Policlinic I, Hematology and Cellular Therapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Uwe Platzbecker
- Medical Clinic and Policlinic I, Hematology and Cellular Therapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sabine Kayser
- Medical Clinic and Policlinic I, Hematology and Cellular Therapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; NCT Trial Center, National Center of Tumor Diseases, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
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Cangini D, Silimbani P, Cafaro A, Giannini MB, Masini C, Ghelli Luserna Di Rorà A, Simonetti G, Martinelli G, Cerchione C. Tagraxofusp and anti-CD123 in blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm: a new hope. Minerva Med 2020; 111:467-477. [PMID: 32955827 DOI: 10.23736/s0026-4806.20.07018-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) is a rare hematological malignancy, characterized by poor prognosis if treated with conventional therapy. Allogenic hematologic stem cell transplant can improve survival and can be curative, but it is available in a small percentage of patients given that the median age at diagnosis is 70 years. In this scenario it is assumed that only the development of precision medicine-driven therapy will change BPDCN patient prognosis. CD123 (the α-subunit of interleukin (IL)-3 receptor) is over-expressed on BPDCN cells surface and seems to be the ideal marker to develop antibody-based therapies. Tagraxofusp (Elzonris<sup>®</sup>), a recombinant immunotoxin consisting of human interleukin-3 fused to a truncated diphtheria toxin, has been approved by FDA in December 2018 for the treatment of BPDCN in adult and pediatric patients. tagraxofusp has shown promising clinical activity, with a high overall response rate and quite manageable safety profile even in elderly patients. It seems to improve overall survival too, but comparative trials are necessary to confirm this. Adverse events are commonly reported and the most important are transaminitis, thrombocytopenia and capillary leak syndrome (CLS). Therefore, to prevent the onset of severe CLS is recommended to reserve tagraxofusp for patients with preserved hepatic and cardiac functions, and to strictly observe serum albumin level. Further studies are required to resolve many several unanswered questions about tagraxofusp. In this review, we will resume and discuss pharmacological characteristic of tagraxofusp, results of clinical trials leading to its approval by FDA in 2018 and future perspectives about its use in BPDCN and other hematological malignancies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Delia Cangini
- Unit of Hematology, IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Forlì-Cesena, Italy
| | - Paolo Silimbani
- Unit of Oncological Pharmacy, IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Forlì-Cesena, Italy
| | - Alessandro Cafaro
- Unit of Oncological Pharmacy, IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Forlì-Cesena, Italy
| | - Maria B Giannini
- Unit of Hematology, IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Forlì-Cesena, Italy
| | - Carla Masini
- Unit of Oncological Pharmacy, IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Forlì-Cesena, Italy
| | - Andrea Ghelli Luserna Di Rorà
- Laboratory of Biosciences, IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Forlì-Cesena, Italy
| | - Giorgia Simonetti
- Laboratory of Biosciences, IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Forlì-Cesena, Italy
| | - Giovanni Martinelli
- IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Forlì-Cesena, Italy
| | - Claudio Cerchione
- Unit of Hematology, IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Forlì-Cesena, Italy -
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Pemmaraju N, Konopleva M. Approval of tagraxofusp-erzs for blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm. Blood Adv 2020; 4:4020-4027. [PMID: 32841341 PMCID: PMC7448601 DOI: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2019000173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) is a rare and clinically challenging hematologic malignancy with dismal outcomes. With a median age of ∼70 years, the majority of patients with BPDCN have experienced historically suboptimal responses with intensive chemotherapy regimens. The major scientific breakthrough in this field was the recognition of overexpression of a surface receptor, CD123/interleukin 3 (IL-3) receptor α, in all patients. Importantly, a novel therapeutic agent consisting of a truncated diphtheria toxin (DT) payload fused to recombinant human IL-3 was being developed, one that targeted CD123, initially known as DT-IL-3 (later known as SL401; tagraxofusp; tagraxofusp-erzs [Elzonris]). The identification of this agent, and subsequent clinical trials specifically dedicated to patients with BPDCN (including a pilot study, followed by a larger phase 1/2 multicenter study [90% overall response rate [ORR] in frontline and 67% ORR in relapsed/refractory setting]), in part led to approval of tagraxofusp-erzs on 21 December 2018. Tagraxofusp-erzs was the first agent approved for BPDCN (for patients ages 2 years and older), and importantly, established this drug as the first CD123-targeted agent ever approved. The most notable toxicity of tagraxofusp-erzs is occurrence of the capillary leak syndrome, which occurs frequently at all grades, and has also been observed to be life-threatening, appropriately leading to a US Food and Drug Administration "black box" warning in the package insert. The preclinical and clinical aspects of drug development of tagraxofusp-erzs as monotherapy leading to drug approval are reviewed herein, with discussion of future directions of this novel agent, including consideration for rational combinations in BPDCN and beyond.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Marina Konopleva
- Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
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