Contemporary drug therapies for multiple myeloma.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable disease characterized by the proliferation of plasma cells. The survival in MM patients has improved significantly in the past decade due to the introduction of novel agents. In this review, we focus on novel agents used in MM, including immunomodulatory drugs (thalidomide, lenalidomide and pomalidomide), proteasome inhibitors (bortezomib, carfilzomib, marizomib and ixazomib citrate), monoclonal antibodies (elotuzumab, siltuximab, daratumumab and BT-062), and drugs affecting an interaction with the tumor microenvironment (anti-VLA4 monoclonal antibody, chemokine CXCR4 inhibitor AMD-3100 and selectin inhibitor GMI-1070). We discuss their mechanism of action, preclinical and clinical outcome in the treatment of MM. Although the development of novel agents has improved the outcomes of MM treatment, most of the patients will still relapse and become refractory to therapy due to development of drug resistance. A better understanding of the biological mechanisms of MM progression, including cellular and molecular events in the MM cells and in their bone marrow microenvironment, is warranted to provide new therapeutic targets and develop new drugs and therapeutic strategies to treat MM.

Inhibition of CXCR4 in CML cells disrupts their interaction with the bone marrow microenvironment and sensitizes them to nilotinib.

Drug resistance is a growing area of concern. It has been shown that a small, residual pool of leukemic CD34+ progenitor cells can survive in the marrow microenvironment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients after years of kinase inhibitor treatment. Bone marrow (BM) stroma has been implicated in the long-term survival of leukemic cells, and contributes to the expansion and proliferation of both transformed and normal hematopoietic cells. Mechanistically, we found that CML cells expressed CXCR4, and that plerixafor diminished BCR-ABL-positive cell migration and reduced adhesion of these cells to extra cellular-matrix components and to BM stromal cells in vitro. Moreover, plerixafor decreased the drug resistance of CML cells induced by co-culture with BM stromal cells in vitro. Using a functional mouse model of progressive and residual disease, we demonstrated the ability of the CXCR4 inhibitor, plerixafor, to mobilize leukemic cells in vivo, such that a plerixafor-nilotinib combination reduced the leukemia burden in mice significantly below the baseline level suppression exhibited by a moderate-to-high dose of nilotinib as single agent. These results support the idea of using CXCR4 inhibition in conjunction with targeted tyrosine kinase inhibition to override drug resistance in CML and suppress or eradicate residual disease.