Previous studies have reported that neutrophil elastase (NE) cleaves PML‑RARα in early myeloid cells, which leads to the removal of the nuclear localization signal (NLS) in PML and increases the incidence of APL.
Nuclear localization signal retinoic acid receptor alpha(NLS-RARα), which forms from the cleavage of promyelocytic leukemia-retinoic acid receptor alpha(PML-RARα) protein by neutrophil elastase(NE), possesses an important role in the occurrence and development of acute promyelocytic leukemia(APL).
Previous studies have shown that, in primary leukemia cells of patients with APL, the cleavage of PML‑RARα by neutrophil elastase is important for its ability to initiate APL.
These results suggested that NE may promote the development of APL, therefore, NE may be a therapeutic target and its inhibitor GW311616A may be a potential therapeutic drug for leukemia.