Description:
This session will cover how the immune microenvironment of the host interacts with leukemia cells and how the donor immune system can exert graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effects. The speakers will focus on the characterization of immune effector cells and leukemia cells using high resolution RNA and protein analysis, the characterization of metabolites that impact the GVL effect and kinase inhibition strategies to overcome immune escape mechanisms of leukemia cells.

Dr. Catherine Wu will discuss the components critical to devising effective immunotherapy for the treatment of myeloid leukemia, namely the identification of myeloid malignancy antigen targets, and the detection of critical immune cell effectors. The analysis of GvL responses following allogeneic stem cell transplant for AML/MDS, through single cell transcriptome and spatial analysis of marrow specimens, is a particularly instructive setting from which to detect key antigens and cell subpopulations implicated in anti-leukemia responses. The insights gained from the study of such GVL settings promise to provide a roadmap for devising new immunotherapeutic approaches for myeloid malignancies.

Dr. Takanori Teshima will discuss mechanisms of leukemia relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and novel strategies to prevent relapse by inhibiting immune escape of leukemic cells, restoring immune cell dysfunction, and turning “COLD” into “HOT” immune microenvironment. In addition, novel strategies to separate GVL from GVHD by controlling migration and activation of donor T cells in the vicinity of leukemic cells.