Fentanyl analogs represent an important group of new psychoactive substances and knowing their efficacy and potency might assist in interpreting observed concentrations. The potency of fentanyl analogs can be estimated from in vitro studies and can be used to establish structure-activity relationships. In this study, recombinant CHO-K1 cells (AequoScreen) expressing the human μ-opioid receptor were used to establish dose-response curves via luminescent analysis for cyclopropyl-, cyclobutyl-, cyclopentyl-, cyclohexyl-, and 2,2,3,3-tetramethylcyclopropylfentanyl (TMCPF), on three separate occasions, using eight different concentrations in an eight-fold serial dilution in triplicates starting at ~60 μM. Fentanyl was used as a full agonist reference while morphine and buprenorphine were included for comparison. Cyclopropylfentanyl (EC₅₀ = 4.3 nM), cyclobutylfentanyl (EC50 = 6.2 nM), and cyclopentylfentanyl (EC₅₀ = 13 nM) were full agonists slightly less potent than fentanyl (EC₅₀ = 1.7 nM). Cyclohexylfentanyl (EC₅₀ = 3.1 μM, efficacy 48%) and TMCPF (EC₅₀ = 1.5 μM, efficacy 65%) were partial agonists less potent than morphine (EC₅₀ = 430 nM). Based on the results, cyclopropyl-, cyclobutyl-, and cyclopentylfentanyl would be expected to induce intoxication or cause fatal poisonings at similar concentrations to fentanyl, while the toxic or fatal concentrations of cyclohexylfentanyl and TMCPF would be expected to be much higher.

Standard treatment for glioblastoma (GBM) patients is surgery and radiochemotherapy (RCT) with temozolomide (TMZ). TMZ is a substrate for ABCB1, a transmembrane drug transporter. It has been suggested that survival for GBM patients receiving TMZ is influenced by different single-nucleotide variants (SNV) of ABCB1. We therefore examined SNV:s of ABCB1, namely 1199Gamp;gt;A, 1236Camp;gt;T, 2677Gamp;gt;T/A, and 3435Camp;gt;T and correlated to survival for GBM patients receiving RCT. In a pilot cohort (97 patients) a significant correlation to survival was found for SNV 1199Gamp;gt;A, with median OS for variant G/G patients being 18.2 months versus 11.5 months for A/G (p = 0.012). We found no correlation to survival for the other SNV:s. We then expanded the cohort to 179 patients (expanded cohort) and also included a confirmatory cohort (49 patients) focusing on SNV 1199Gamp;gt;A. Median OS for G/G versus A/G plus A/A was 15.7 and 11.5 months, respectively (p = 0.085) for the expanded cohort and 13.8 versus 16.8 months (p = 0.19) for the confirmatory. In conclusion, in patients with GBM receiving RCT with TMZ, no correlation with survival was found for the SNV:s 1236Camp;gt;T, 2677Gamp;gt;T/A, and 3435Camp;gt;T of ABCB1. Although the SNV 1199Gamp;gt;A might have some impact, a clinically significant role could not be confirmed.

Treatments that include gemcitabine and carboplatin induce dose-limiting myelosuppression. The understanding of how human bone marrow is affected on a transcriptional level leading to the development of myelosuppression is required for the implementation of personalized treatments in the future. In this study, we treated human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) harvested from a patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) with gemcitabine/carboplatin. Thereafter, scRNA-seq was performed to distinguish transcriptional effects induced by gemcitabine/carboplatin. Gene expression was calculated and evaluated among cells within and between samples compared to untreated cells. Cell cycle analysis showed that the treatments effectively decrease cell proliferation, indicated by the proportion of cells in the G2M-phase dropping from 35% in untreated cells to 14.3% in treated cells. Clustering and t-SNE showed that cells within samples and between treated and untreated samples were affected differently. Enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes showed that the treatments influence KEGG pathways and Gene Ontologies related to myeloid cell proliferation/differentiation, immune response, cancer, and the cell cycle. The present study shows the feasibility of using scRNA-seq and chemotherapy-treated HSPCs to find genes, pathways, and biological processes affected among and between treated and untreated cells. This indicates the possible gains of using single-cell toxicity studies for personalized medicine.

The standard treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) consists of induction chemotherapy, most commonly daunorubicin together with the nucleoside analogue cytarabine (Ara-C), followed by consolidation chemotherapy and in selected cases allogenic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). Despite a high initial response rate, a considerable proportion of all AML cases eventually suffer from relapse and the five-year overall survival rate in patients >60 years is only around 15%. Based on cytogenetic analysis, patients are divided into low risk, intermediate risk, and high-risk groups. While low risk patients have a high chance of reaching and remaining in remission after standard induction therapy, high-risk patients are likely to suffer from relapse and should be scheduled for allo-SCT when first complete remission is reached. The intermediate risk group consists of normal karyotype (NK) patients and those with karyotypes of uncertain clinical relevance, but the outcomes are heterogeneous. In NKAML patients, risk classification has improved with the addition of molecular markers including FLT3 internal tandem duplications (ITD) and mutations of NPM1 and CEBPA. Despite this development, there is a group of patients lacking reliable prognostic markers and in some cases the outcomes predicted do not match the outcomes observed, highlighting the need for additional markers. ABCB1 encodes a transporter protein responsible for the extrusion of cytotoxic compounds, including daunorubicin, over the cell membrane, and is a known resistance mechanism. Ara-C is subject to both activating and inactivating metabolic enzymes including DCK (activating), CDA and cN-II (inactivating). ABCB1, DCK, CDA and cN-II are all polymorphic, and SNPs affecting enzyme function and/or activity have potential as prognostic markers. In addition, recurrent IDH1/2 mutations lead to the expression of an enzyme with neomorphic activity associated with epigenetic alterations and disturbed differentiation. Mutations as well as a SNP in codon 105 of IDH1 have prognostic implications in AML, although the effects of different IDH mutations have been unclear. The aim of this thesis was to investigate SNPs in ABCB1 and genes associated with Ara-C metabolism, mutations in IDH1/2 and the IDH1 SNP, and their associations with treatment response and survival in AML. We show that the 1236C>T and 2677G>T SNPs in ABCB1 influence in vitro sensitivity towards AML drugs, with corresponding effects on NK-AML patient survival. These survival differences were seen mainly in patients lacking FLT3-ITD, further adding to the risk stratification. In contrast, the CDA SNPs 79A>C and -451C>T appear to influence survival mainly in FLT3-ITD positive cases. In conclusion, the above-mentioned SNPs have the potential to add important information to risk classifications especially in NK-AML patients with the ambiguous FLT3-ITD-/NPM1- or FLT3-ITD+/NPM1+ genotypes. In addition, we have shown that IDH2 R140 mutation is associated with impaired survival in AML, and that the IDH1 codon 105 SNP appears to confer a worse outcome in a subset of intermediate risk patients without FLT3-ITD. With the introduction of next generation sequencing into clinical diagnostics, IDH mutations may not only provide prognostic information but also guide the selection of patients for new drugs targeting the variant enzyme. Our results indicate that in addition to leukemia-specific mutations, constitutional SNPs may prove useful for further individualizing care-taking and should be considered when implementing these new techniques.

Telomerase reverse transcriptase gene (TERT) promoter mutations are identified in many malignancies but not in hematological malignancies. Here we analyzed TERT and protection of telomeres 1 gene (POT1) mutations, and four different TERT SNVs in 226 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients and 806 healthy individuals in a case referent design, where also overall survival was assessed. A significant association for increased risk of AML was found for TERT SNVs, rs2853669 (OR = 2.45, p = 0.00015) and rs2736100 (OR = 1.5, p = 0.03). The overall survival for patients with CC genotype of rs2853669 was significantly shorter compared to those with TT or TC genotypes (p = 0.036 and 0.029 respectively). The influence of TERT rs2853669 CC on survival was confirmed in multivariable Cox regression analysis as an independent risk biomarker in addition to high risk group, higher age and treatment. No hot spot TERT promoter mutations at -228Cgreater thanT or -250Cgreater thanT or POT1 mutations could be identified in this AML cohort. We show that rs2853669 CC may be a risk factor for the development of AML that may also be used as a prognostic marker to identify high risk normal karyotype -AML (NK-AML) patients, for treatment guidance.

BackgroundTP53 is commonly mutated in several cancers and confers treatment resistance and poor prognosis. Altered expression of mouse double minute 2 (MDM2), a negative regulator of p53, may also attenuate normal p53 signaling, thereby enhancing tumor transformation and resistance to apoptosis. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) 309 has been reported to increase MDM2 expression and impair normal p53 response. Experimental designWe investigated the frequency and impact of TP53 mutations (TP53mut) and MDM2(SNP309) on treatment outcome and overall survival (OS) in 189 Swedish acute myeloid leukemia patients. The genetic analyses were performed using SSCA and direct sequencing (for mutations in exon 5-8 of TP53) and Pyrosequencing (for the MDM2(SNP309)). ResultsWe found a high frequency (22%) of TP53mut in patients with cytogenetic aberrations, with association to high-risk cytogenetics (Pless than0.001). TP53mut patients had lower response rates (22% compared with 76% CR in TP53 wild-type (wt) patients, Pless than0.001) and reduced OS (2 and 16months, respectively, Pless than0.001). In TP53wt patients with high or intermediate risk cytogenetic aberrations, the MDM2(SNP309) conferred an impaired outcome, with patients carrying the alternative G-allele having shorter OS compared with T/T patients (median 9 vs. 50months, P=0.020). ConclusionsOur results show that TP53mut analysis and MDM2(SNP309) genotyping may be useful tools for prognostication, risk stratification, and selection of patients most likely to benefit from new drugs targeting the p53 signaling pathway.

Drug resistance is a clinically relevant problem in the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). We have previously reported a relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of ABCB1, encoding the multi-drug transporter P-glycoprotein, and overall survival (OS) in normal karyotype (NK)-AML. Here we extended this material, enabling subgroup analysis based on FLT3 and NPM1 status, to further elucidate the influence of ABCB1 SNPs. De novo NK-AML patients (n = 201) were analysed for 1199Ggreater thanA, 1236Cgreater thanT, 2677Ggreater thanT/A and 3435Cgreater thanT, and correlations to outcome were investigated. FLT3 wild-type 1236C/C patients have significantly shorter OS compared to patients carrying the variant allele; medians 20 vs. 49 months, respectively, P = 0.017. There was also an inferior outcome in FLT3 wild-type 2677G/G patients compared to patients carrying the variant allele, median OS 20 vs. 35 months, respectively, P = 0.039. This was confirmed in Cox regression analysis. Our results indicate that ABCB1 1236Cgreater thanT and 2677Ggreater thanT may be used as prognostic markers to distinguish relatively high risk patients in the intermediate risk FLT3 wild-type group, which may contribute to future individualizing of treatment strategies.

The isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH1/IDH2) genes are frequently mutated and reported to associate with poor prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We have investigated the frequency and outcome of the acquired IDH1/IDH2 mutations and the IDH1 SNP  105C>T (rs11554137) in 207 unselected de novo AML patients. IDH1 codon 132 mutations were present in 7.7%, whereas IDH2 mutations were more frequent and mutations were identified in codon 140 and 172 in a frequency of 10.1% and 2.9%, respectively. The SNP 105C>T was present in 10.1% of the patients, similar to the normal population. A significantly reduced overall survival (OS) for patients carrying IDH2 codon 140 mutation compared with patients carrying wild-type IDH2 gene (p=0.009) was observed in the intermediate risk patient group with cytogenetically normal karyotype (CN-AML). Neither in the entire patient group nor subdivided in different risk groups, IDH1 mutations had any significance on OS compared to the wild-type IDH1 patients. A significant difference in OS between the heterozygous SNP variant and the homozygous wild-type was observed in the intermediate risk FLT3 negative CN-AML, (p=0.007). Our results indicate that IDH2 mutations and the IDH1 SNP 105C>T variant may represent a new subgroup for risk stratification and may indicate new treatment options.

TP53 is commonly mutated in several cancers and confers treatment resistance and poor prognosis. Altered expression of MDM2 (mouse double minute 2), a negative regulator of p53, may also attenuate normal p53 signaling, thereby enhancing tumor transformation and resistance to apoptosis. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) 309 has been reported to increase MDM2 expression and impair normal p53 response. We investigated the frequency and impact of TP53 mutations (TP53mut) and MDM2^SNP309 on treatment outcome and overall survival (OS) in 207 Swedish AML patients. We found a high frequency (22%) of TP53mut in patients with cytogenetic aberrations, with strong association to high risk cytogenetics (p<0.001). TP53mut patients had lower response rates compared to TP53 wild-type (wt) patients (22% and 76% CR, respectively, p<0.001) and reduced OS (5 and 21 months, respectively, p<0.001). In TP53wt patients with abnormal karyotype, the MDM2^SNP309 conferred an impaired outcome, with patients carrying the alternative G allele  having shorter OS compared to T/T patients (13 and 29 months, p=0.031). In conclusion, our results show that TP53mut analysis as well as MDM2^SNP309 genotyping may be useful tools for prognostication, risk stratification and selection of patients most likely to benefit from new drugs targeting the p53 signaling pathway.

P-glycoprotein (P-gp), encoded by the ABCB1/MDR1 gene, is a drug transporter at the blood–brain barrier. Several polymorphisms in the ABCB1 gene are known to affect the activity and/or expression of P-gp, thereby influencing the treatment response and toxicity of P-gp substrates like citalopram and venlafaxine. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of ABCB1 genotypes in forensic autopsy cases involving these two antidepressants. Further, the distribution of ABCB1 genotypes in deaths related to intoxication was compared to cases not associated to drug intoxication. The study included 228 forensic autopsy cases with different causes and manners of deaths. The ABCB1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) G1199A, C1236T, C3435T and G2677T/A for these individuals were determined. The SNPs C1236T and C3435T in venlafaxine-positive cases were significantly different between the intoxication cases and non-intoxications. This was not seen for cases involving citalopram, indicating that the effect of genetic variants might be substrate specific. This novel finding should, however, be confirmed in future studies with larger number of cases.