Targeting CD33 for acute myeloid leukemia therapy

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyze the level of CD33 expression in patients with newly diagnosed AML and determine its correlation with clinical characteristics. METHODS: Samples were collected for analysis from AML patients at diagnosis. We evaluated the level of CD33 expression by flow cytometry analysis of bone marrow. Chi-square or t- tests were used to assess the association between the high and low CD33 expression groups. Survival curves were generated by the Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression model method. RESULTS: In this study we evaluated the level of CD33 expression in de novo patients diagnosed from November 2013 until January 2019. The mean value of 73.4% was used as the cutoff for the two groups. Statistical analysis revealed that 53 of the 86 (61.2%) AML patients were above the mean. Although there was no statistical significance between CD33 expression level and gene mutation, FLT3 mutation (P = 0.002) and NPM1 mutation (P = 0.001) were more likely to be seen in the high CD33 group. The overall survival (OS) was worse in the high CD33 group (39.0 m vs. 16.7 m, x(2) = 13.06, P < 0.001). The Cox survival regression display that the CD33 is independent prognostic marker (HR =0.233,p = 0.008). Univariate analysis showed that the high expression of CD33 was an unfavorable prognostic factor. Of the 86 patients, CD33-high was closely related to the patients with normal karyotype (x(2) = 4.891,P = 0.027), high white blood cell count (WBC, t = 2.804, P = 0.007), and a high ratio of primitive cells (t = 2.851, P = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide a strong rationale for targeting CD33 in combination with chemotherapy, which can be considered a promising therapeutic strategy for AML. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-09116-5.