Cooperative effect of chidamide and chemotherapeutic drugs induce apoptosis by DNA damage accumulation and repair defects in acute myeloid leukemia stem and progenitor cells

Background Many conventional chemotherapeutic drugs are known to be involved in DNA damage, thus ultimately leading to apoptosis of leukemic cells. However, they fail to completely eliminate leukemia stem cells (LSCs) due to their higher DNA repair capacity of cancer stem cells than that of bulk cancer cells, which becomes the root of drug resistance and leukemia recurrence. A new strategy to eliminate LSCs in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is therefore urgently needed.