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Updated: Dec 20, 2025

Modeling Chemotherapy Resistant Leukemia In Vitro
Published on: February 9, 2016
Extensive Remodeling of the Immune Microenvironment in B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Matthew T Witkowski1, Igor Dolgalev2, Nikki A Evensen1
1Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA; Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Abstract:
A subset of B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) patients will relapse and succumb to therapy-resistant disease. The bone marrow microenvironment may support B-ALL progression and treatment evasion. Utilizing single-cell approaches, we demonstrate B-ALL bone marrow immune microenvironment remodeling upon disease initiation and subsequent re-emergence during conventional chemotherapy. We uncover a role for non-classical monocytes in B-ALL survival, and demonstrate monocyte abundance at B-ALL diagnosis is predictive of pediatric and adult B-ALL patient survival. We show that human B-ALL blasts alter a vascularized microenvironment promoting monocytic differentiation, while depleting leukemia-associated monocytes in B-ALL animal models prolongs disease remission in vivo. Our profiling of the B-ALL immune microenvironment identifies extrinsic regulators of B-ALL survival supporting new immune-based therapeutic approaches for high-risk B-ALL treatment.
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