The ERK1/2 (extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2) pathway, comprising the protein kinases RAF (v-raf-1 murine leukemia viral oncogene homolog 1), MEK1/2 (mitogen-activated protein kinase or ERK kinase 1 and 2) and ERK1/2 is frequently de-regulated in human cancers, due to mutations in RAS or BRAF (v-raf-1 murine leukemia viral oncogene homolog B1).
In this issue of Leukemia Research, Drexler and MacLeod raise questions about the origins of cell lines used in the study of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia and suggest caution in the use of these cell lines as models of this disease [Drexler HG, Macleod RAF.
This article will discuss the relevance of the ras-raf signaling pathway in the pathogenesis of myeloid leukemia, and describes some early results in the use of novel small molecule inhibitors of farnysltransferase and raf protein kinase in leukemia therapy.
These results suggest that c-raf-1 is one of the factors involved in Ara-C resistance in leukemia and lend weight to the case for development of anti-cancer therapeutics involving oncogene-targeted antisense oligonucleotides.
In a previous study, we demonstrated that bufalin, which is an active principle of Chinese medicine, chan'su, caused apoptosis in human leukemia U937 cells by anomalous activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) via the signaling pathway of Ras, Raf-1, and MAPK kinase-1.