OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of telomerase inhibitor (TMPyP4 [tetra(N-methyl-4-pyridyl)-porphyrin chloride]; a G-quadruplex-intercalating porphyrin) as a potential therapeutic agent for multiple myeloma. MATERIALS AND METHODS We studied telomere length, telomerase activity, and effect of telomerase inhibition in multiple myeloma cells. Several myeloma cell lines we...

Chromosome 8q24 rearrangements are occasionally found in multiple myeloma and are associated with tumor progression. The 8q24 rearrangements were detected by FISH in 12 of 54 patients with multiple myeloma (22.2%) and in 8 of 11 multiple myeloma cell lines (72.7%). The breakpoints of 8q24 in 10 patients with multiple myeloma and in all multiple myeloma cell lines were assigned to a 360 kb segme...

OBJECTIVES Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a constituent of the myeloma microenvironment and is elevated in sera from myeloma patients compared to healthy individuals. Increased levels of serum HGF predict a poor prognosis. It has previously been shown by us and others HGF can act as a growth factor to myeloma cells in vitro although these effects have been moderate. We therefore wanted to in...

BACKGROUND Metformin is a commonly used drug for the treatment of diabetes. Accumulating evidence suggests that it exerts anti-tumor effects in many cancers, including multiple myeloma (MM); however, the underlying molecular mechanisms have not been clearly elucidated. METHODS The anti-myeloma effects of metformin were evaluated using human MM cell lines (RPMI8226 and U266) in vitro and in vi...

Cells degrade proteins either by proteasomes that clinically are targeted by for example bortezomib or carfilzomib, or by formation of autophagosomes and lysosomal degradation that can be inhibited by hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). Multiple myeloma is unique among cancers because proteasomal inhibition has good clinical effects. However, some multiple myeloma patients display intrinsic resistance to...

A paucity of validated kinase targets in human multiple myeloma has delayed clinical deployment of kinase inhibitors in treatment strategies. We therefore conducted a kinome-wide small interfering RNA (siRNA) lethality study in myeloma tumor lines bearing common t(4;14), t(14;16), and t(11;14) translocations to identify critically vulnerable kinases in myeloma tumor cells without regard to prec...

Autoantibody-secreting hybridomas were produced by somatic cell fusion of B lymphocytes from a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus with two different human myeloma lines. Selection of hybrids formed from one of these cell lines was performed by using aminopterine-containing culture medium as this cell line was deficient in hypoxanthine-guanine-phosphoribosyl transferase (HGPRT). The secon...

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the expression pattern and biological significance of the CD45 molecule in myeloma cells. In this study, we have further defined the phenotypic pattern of CD45 expression on myeloma cells. Using a panel of myeloma cell lines, we showed that CD45 showed a remarkably heterogeneous pattern of expression. Whereas some cell lines were CD451 and othe...

We investigated the role of the breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP/ABCG2) in drug resistance in multiple myeloma (MM). Human MM cell lines, and MM patient plasma cells isolated from bone marrow, were evaluated for ABCG2 mRNA expression by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and ABCG2 protein, by Western blot analysis, immunofluorescence microscopy, and flow cytometry. ABCG2 functio...