title: Therapeutic effect of lenalidomide in a novel xenograft mouse model of human blastic NK cell lymphoma/blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Blastic natural killer (NK) cell lymphoma/blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BNKL) is a rare and aggressive neoplasia characterized by infiltration of blast CD4(+)/CD56(+) cells in the skin, the bone marrow, and peripheral blood. Currently, more efforts are required to better define molecular and biological mechanisms associated with this pathology. To the best of our knowledge, no mouse model recapitulated human BNKL so far.
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary bone marrow cells from a BNKL patient were injected in nonobese diabetes/severe combined immunodeficient interleukin (IL) 2rγ(-/-) mice with the intent to generate the first BNKL orthotopic mouse model. Moreover, because of the lack of efficient treatments for BNKL, we treated mice with lenalidomide, an immunomodulatory and antiangiogenic drug.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We generated in mice a fatal disease resembling human BNKL. After lenalidomide treatment, we observed a significant reduction in the number of peripheral blood, bone marrow, and spleen BNKL cells. Tumor reduction parallels with a significant decrease in the number of circulating endothelial and progenitor cells and CD31(+) murine endothelial cells. In mice treated with lenalidomide, BNKL levels of active caspase-3 were significantly augmented, thus showing proapoptotic and cytotoxic effects of this drug in vivo. An opposite result was found for proliferating cell nuclear antigen, a proliferation marker.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our BNKL model might better define the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in this disease, and lenalidomide might be considered for the future therapy of BNKL patients.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Hematology-Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agliano
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Martin-Padura
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marighetti
authors.forename: Giuliana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gregato
authors.forename: Angelica
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calleri
authors.forename: Celia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Prior
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Redrado
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calvo
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bertolini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003713:Dendritic Cells; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural; D000077269:Lenalidomide; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D016688:Mice, Inbred NOD; D016513:Mice, SCID; D008875:Middle Aged; D013792:Thalidomide / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D013792:Thalidomide; D000077269:Lenalidomide