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Role and potential for therapeutic targeting of MYB in leukemia

Leukemia volume 27, pages 269–277 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Myb protein was first identified as an oncogene that causes leukemia in chickens. Since then, it has been widely associated with different types of cancers and studied in detail in myeloid leukemias. However, despite these studies, its role in the induction, pathogenesis and maintenance of AML, and other blood disorders, is still not well understood. Recent efforts to uncover its plethora of transcriptional targets have provided key insights into understanding its mechanism of action. This review evaluates our current knowledge of the role of Myb in leukemia, with a particular focus on AML, from the vast literature spanning three decades, highlighting key studies that have influenced our understanding. We discuss recent insights into its role in leukemogenesis and how these could be exploited for the therapeutic targeting of Myb, its associated co-regulators or its target genes, in order to improve outcomes in the treatment of a wide range of hematopoietic malignancies.

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Acknowledgements

DRP was supported by a PhD Scholarship from the Leukaemia Foundation (Australia). Work in the Gonda laboratory is and/or has been supported by funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), the Australian Research Council and the Leukaemia Foundation (Australia).

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  1. D R Pattabiraman

    Present address: 3Current address: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA, USA,

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  1. University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    D R Pattabiraman & T J Gonda

  2. School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    T J Gonda

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  1. D R Pattabiraman
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Pattabiraman, D., Gonda, T. Role and potential for therapeutic targeting of MYB in leukemia. Leukemia 27, 269–277 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2012.225

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