One lipid to predict them all
Kevin Rouault-Pierre, Blood, 2025
In this issue of Blood, O’Brien et al demonstrates that distinct gene mutations in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) result in unique plasma metabolite and lipid signatures.
A total of 231 diagnostic AML plasma samples isolated prior intensive chemotherapy treatments were investigated using unbiased metabolic and lipidomic analysis.
Although metabolites were associated with the mutational landscape of AML cells, lipids were highly associated with refractory status.
Among all lipids, sphingomyelin (d44:1) [SM(d44:1)] was sufficient to predict overall survival.
Lipid metabolism differs between healthy hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), leukemic stem/initiating cells (LSCs/LICs), and AML blasts, and plays a critical role in cancer progression.
Patients with AML show distinct lipid profiles, both in cells and plasma, compared to healthy individuals, with specific lipid species correlating with cytogenetic and prognostic subtypes.