Low expression of ACLY associates with favorable prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia

BACKGROUND: Aberrant metabolism is a hallmark of cancer cells. Recently, ATP citrate-lyase (ACLY) expression was demonstrated as an independent predictor of clinical outcome in solid tumors. However, no systematic study was conducted to explore the prognostic impact of ACLY on acute myeloid leukemia (AML). METHODS: To assess the prognostic value of ACLY transcript, we conducted a study with a discovery and validation design. We measured ACLY transcript by real-time quantitative PCR in 274 AML patients, and validated the prognostic value in the two independent cohorts using published data. Meta-analysis of gene-expression profile and inhibition ACLY expression in leukemia cell lines were conducted to help us understand the biological insight of low ACLY expression. RESULTS: Low ACLY expression is less common amongst AMLs with DNMT3A mutations, but coexisted in double allele CEBPA mutations. Moreover, low ACLY expression is associated with favorable overall survival in AML patients and is involved in multiple pathways. These results are also validated in two independent cohorts of AML patients. Moreover, ACLY silencing induces proliferation arrest in THP-1 and MOLM-13 leukemia cell lines. CONCLUSION: We found low ACLY expression is associated with favorable overall survival in AML patients. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12967-019-1884-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.