Increasing Role of Targeted Immunotherapies in the Treatment of AML

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia in adults. The standard of care in medically and physically fit patients is intensive induction therapy. The majority of these intensively treated patients achieve a complete remission. However, a high number of these patients will experience relapse. In patients older than 60 years, the results are even worse. Therefore, new therapeutic approaches are desperately needed. One promising approach in high-risk leukemia to prevent relapse is the induction of the immune system simultaneously or after reduction of the initial tumor burden. Different immunotherapeutic approaches such as allogenic stem cell transplantation or donor lymphocyte infusions are already standard therapies, but other options for AML treatment are in the pipeline. Moreover, the therapeutic landscape in AML is rapidly changing, and in the last years, a number of immunogenic targets structures eligible for specific therapy, risk assessment or evaluation of disease course were determined. For example, leukemia-associated antigens (LAA) showed to be critical as biomarkers of disease state and survival, as well as markers of minimal residual disease (MRD). Yet many mechanisms and properties are still insufficiently understood, which also represents a great potential for this form of therapy. Therefore, targeted therapy as immunotherapy could turn into an efficient tool to clear residual disease, improve the outcome of AML patients and reduce the relapse risk. In this review, established but also emerging immunotherapeutic approaches for AML patients will be discussed.

Update on the target structures of SARS-CoV-2: A systematic review

Knowledge of structural details is very much essential from the drug-design perspective. In the systematic review, we systematically reviewed the structural basis of different target proteins of SARS-corona virus (CoV2) from a viral life cycle and from drug design perspective. We searched four literature (PubMed, EMBASE, NATURE, and Willey online library) databases and one structural database (RCSB.org) with appropriate keywords till April 18, and finally, 26 articles were included in the systematic review. The published literature mainly centered upon the structural details of “spike protein,” “main protease/M Pro/3CL pro,” “RNA-dependent RNA polymerase,” and “nonstructural protein 15 Endoribonuclease” of SARS-CoV-2. However, inhibitor bound structures were very less. We need better structures elucidating the interactions between different targets and their inhibitors which will help us in understanding the atomic level importance of different amino acid residues in the functionality of the target structures. To summarize, we need structures with fine resolution, co-crystallized structures with biologically validated inhibitors, and functional characterization of different target proteins. Some other routes of entry of SARS-CoV-2 are also mentioned (e.g., CD147); however, these findings are not structurally validated. This review may pave way for better understanding of SARS-CoV-2 life cycle from structural biology perspective.