Immunogenomics for Drug Discovery in Leukemia

A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 March 2026 | Viewed by 2361

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Innovation and Precision Medicine, Nucleus A, National Institute of Genomic Medicine, Mexico City 14610, Mexico
Interests: acute lymphoblastic leukemia; genomics; transcriptomics; hematological malignancies; breast cancer; mitochondria

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Guest Editor
Molecular Biology Laboratory, Service of Hematology, Hospital General de Mexico, “Dr. Eduardo Liceaga”, Mexico City 06720, Mexico
Interests: acute lymphoblastic leukemia; myeloid leukemia

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Leukemia is a group of hematological diseases that are highly heterogeneous in terms of their clinical, molecular and therapeutic response and remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children and adults. In fact, although leukemia treatment protocols have been improved during the last decade, the morbidity and mortality rates resulting from these diseases persist as an important public health problem in many populations. Since the Human Genome Project was launched, there have been notable advances in our understanding of the genomic basis of leukemia and the role of genetic mutations in relapse and chemoresistance. Therefore, more efforts are needed to discover new biomolecules for early diagnosis, the monitoring of residual disease, early detection of relapses, and the development of more suitable treatments for leukemia subtypes. This Special Issue aims to highlight current knowledge on the use of immunogenomics approaches to achieve personalized medicine to treat these diseases.

We encourage the submission of review papers and original manuscripts containing new and unpublished data related to omics studies and experimental models of leukemia with the aim of discovering new therapeutic approaches.

Dr. Silvia Jiménez-Morales
Dr. Adolfo Martínez-Tovar
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • leukemia
  • hematological diseases
  • immunogenomics
  • omics studies
  • experimental models
  • therapeutic approaches

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 648 KB  
Article
Somatic Mutations in DNA Mismatch Repair Genes, Mutation Rate and Neoantigen Load in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
by Diana Karen Mendiola-Soto, Laura Gómez-Romero, Juan Carlos Núñez-Enríquez, Janet Flores-Lujano, Elva Jiménez-Hernández, Aurora Medina-Sansón, Vilma Carolina Bekker-Méndez, Minerva Mata-Rocha, María Luisa Pérez-Saldívar, David Aldebarán Duarte-Rodríguez, José Refugio Torres-Nava, José Gabriel Peñaloza-González, Luz Victoria Flores-Villegas, Raquel Amador-Sánchez, Martha Margarita Velázquez-Aviña, Jorge Alfonso Martín-Trejo, Laura Elizabeth Merino-Pasaye, Karina Anastacia Solís-Labastida, Rosa Martha Espinosa-Elizondo, Carlos Jhovani Pérez-Amado, Didier Ismael May-Hau, Omar Alejandro Sepúlveda-Robles, Haydee Rosas-Vargas, Juan Manuel Mejía-Aranguré and Silvia Jiménez-Moralesadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Pharmaceuticals 2025, 18(9), 1405; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph18091405 - 18 Sep 2025
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Abstract
Background/Objectives: During cancer development, tumor cells accumulate somatic mutations, which could generate tumor-specific neoantigens. The aberrant protein can be recognized by the immune system as no-self, triggering an immune response against cells expressing this aberrant protein which could mediate tumor control or [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: During cancer development, tumor cells accumulate somatic mutations, which could generate tumor-specific neoantigens. The aberrant protein can be recognized by the immune system as no-self, triggering an immune response against cells expressing this aberrant protein which could mediate tumor control or rejection. Since the expression of this mutated protein is exclusive to tumor cells, great efforts are being made to identify neoantigens of relevance in the development of new cancer treatment strategies. In comparison to adulthood tumors, pediatric malignancies present fewer mutations and thus fewer potential neoantigens. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric malignancy worldwide that can be benefited by the identification of neoantigens for immunotherapy approaches, the landscape of neoantigens in ALL is not well known, therefore the aim of our study was to identify potential neoantigens in ALL pediatric patients. Methods: To identify neoantigens in ALL, whole-exome sequencing of matched tumor-normal cells from pediatric cases was performed, with these data HLA-I alleles predicted and somatic mutations identified to propose potential neoantigens based on binding affinity of mutated peptide-HLA-I. Results: We found a strong correlation between tumor mutational burden (TMB) and neoantigen load (p < 0.001) but no correlation with prognosis. Furthermore, TMB and neoantigens were greater in ALL patients with at least one mutated DNA mismatch repair gene (p < 0.001). Also, differences between B- and T-cell ALL were found but statistical significance did not remain after permutation. Conclusions: The presence of neoantigens in pediatric cases with ALL makes the neoantigen-based immunotherapy a promising new strategy for the treatment of this malignancy, especially for patients with relapse. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunogenomics for Drug Discovery in Leukemia)
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