@ARTICLE{10.3389/bjbs.2023.11041, AUTHOR={Wodi, Chigeru and Belali, Tareg and Morse, Ruth and Porazinski, Sean and Ladomery, Michael}, TITLE={SPHINX-Based Combination Therapy as a Potential Novel Treatment Strategy for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia}, JOURNAL={British Journal of Biomedical Science}, VOLUME={80}, YEAR={2023}, URL={https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/articles/10.3389/bjbs.2023.11041}, DOI={10.3389/bjbs.2023.11041}, ISSN={2474-0896}, ABSTRACT={Introduction: Dysregulated alternative splicing is a prominent feature of cancer. The inhibition and knockdown of the SR splice factor kinase SRPK1 reduces tumour growth in vivo. As a result several SPRK1 inhibitors are in development including SPHINX, a 3-(trifluoromethyl)anilide scaffold. The objective of this study was to treat two leukaemic cell lines with SPHINX in combination with the established cancer drugs azacitidine and imatinib.Materials and Methods: We selected two representative cell lines; Kasumi-1, acute myeloid leukaemia, and K562, BCR-ABL positive chronic myeloid leukaemia. Cells were treated with SPHINX concentrations up to 10μM, and in combination with azacitidine (up to 1.5 μg/ml, Kasumi-1 cells) and imatinib (up to 20 μg/ml, K562 cells). Cell viability was determined by counting the proportion of live cells and those undergoing apoptosis through the detection of activated caspase 3/7. SRPK1 was knocked down with siRNA to confirm SPHINX results.Results: The effects of SPHINX were first confirmed by observing reduced levels of phosphorylated SR proteins. SPHINX significantly reduced cell viability and increased apoptosis in Kasumi-1 cells, but less prominently in K562 cells. Knockdown of SRPK1 by RNA interference similarly reduced cell viability. Combining SPHINX with azacitidine augmented the effect of azacitidine in Kasumi-1 cells. In conclusion, SPHINX reduces cell viability and increases apoptosis in the acute myeloid leukaemia cell line Kasumi-1, but less convincingly in the chronic myeloid leukaemia cell line K562.Conclusion: We suggest that specific types of leukaemia may present an opportunity for the development of SRPK1-targeted therapies to be used in combination with established chemotherapeutic drugs.} }