Single-cell dissection reveals promotive role of ENO1 in leukemia stem cell self-renewal and chemoresistance in acute myeloid leukemia

<p><span>Quiescent s</span><span>elf-renew</span><span>al</span><span> </span><span>of </span><span>leukemia stem cells (LSCs)</span><span> and resistance to</span><span> </span><span>c</span><span>onventional chemotherapy </span><span>are the main factors leading to relapse of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). </span><span>Alpha-enolase (<em>ENO1</em>), a key glycolytic enzyme, has been shown to regulate embryonic stem cell differentiation and promote self-renewal and malignant phenotypes in various cancer stem cells. Here, we sought to test whether and how <em>ENO1</em> influences LSCs renewal and chemoresistance within the context of AML.</span></p> <p><span>We analyzed single-cell RNA sequencing data from bone marrow samples of 8 relapsed/refractory AML patients and 4 healthy controls using bioinformatics and machine learning algorithms. In addition, we compared <em>ENO1</em> expression levels in the AML cohort with those in 37 control subjects and conducted survival analyses to correlate <em>ENO1</em> expression with clinical outcomes. Furthermore, we performed functional studies involving <em>ENO1</em> knockdown and inhibition in AML cell line(MOLM_13).</span></p>