Rabbit Anti-Human CD33 monoclonal antibody, clone TQ377

Neonatal congenital leukemia (CL) constitutes less than 1% of all childhood leukemia cases and is diagnosed in 1 to 5 per million live births. In the neonatal period acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is described in 56-64% of cases, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in 21-38% of cases and mixed-phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) in less than 5% of cases. Rearrangements of the mixed-lineage leukemia (KMT2A alias MLL) gene are found in > 70% of infant leukemia cases. The incidence of the most frequent KMT2A rearrangements in newborns with congenital MPAL is unknown. We report a male term newborn with "blueberry muffin" syndrome, which had been noted at birth, as a presenting sign of acute leukemia. Eight-color multiparameter flow cytometry showed a blast population corresponding to a myeloid lineage with monocytic differentiation positive for CD33+/CD15+/CD11+/CD64+/HLA-DR+/CD4+, negative for MPO-/CD34-/CD19-/CD79a-/CD117-/CD13-/CD14-/CD36-/cCD3-/CD2-/CD7-, and additionally positive for sCD3 (40%). Mixed-phenotype acute leukemia according to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification was diagnosed with complex translocation t(10;11)(p12;q23) with KMT2A/MLLT10 rearrangement. The patient had an unfavorable response to chemotherapy and died on the 5th day of life.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disease most commonly affecting older individuals with a high mortality. Despite the recent introduction of many novel agents, only a few were shown to significantly impact the outcome of this disease. Recent advances using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma have generated a tremendous interest for this strategy. Moreover, early results using high-dose natural killer (NK) cell therapy show promise for the treatment of patients with advanced AML. Other cell products like cytokine-induced killers (CIK) or CAR T-cells targeting CD33 or CD123 surface antigens are being developed. NK-cells expressing a CAR against myeloid antigens may combine the benefits of targeting AML cells with NK cell mediated killing. It is unknown whether such approaches targeting AML will spare normal hematopoiesis or would need to be used in combination with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Here we review the current state of cell therapy for patients with AML and consider future prospects.