Ho-Jae Han

Mr. Ho-Jae Han

Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences and Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

6Years (2021-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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4 November 2021 in Cancers
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
HJHyeok-Jae Jang
Hyeok-Jae Jang
YWYoung-Min Woo
Young-Min Woo
KNKazuhito Naka
Kazuhito Naka
JPJong-Ho Park
Jong-Ho Park
Ho-Jae HanHo-Jae Han
Ho-Jae Han
DKDennis Dong Hwan Kim
Dennis Dong Hwan Kim
Previous studies have suggested that statins can be repurposed for cancer treatment. However, the therapeutic efficacy of statins in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has not yet been demonstrated. In this study, we retrospectively evaluated the outcomes of 408 CML patients who underwent imatinib therapy. The deep molecular response rates in patients treated with the statin/TKI combination were significantly higher than those in patients treated with TKI alone (p = 0.0016). The statin/TKI combination exerted potent cytotoxic effects against wild-type and ABL1 mutant CML, BaF3, and K562/T315I mutant cells. Furthermore, the statin/TKI combination additively inhibited the colony-forming capacity of murine CML-KLS+ cells in vitro. In addition, we examined the additive growth-inhibitory effects of the statin/tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) combination against CML patient-derived CD34+ cells. The growth-inhibitory effects of the statin/imatinib combination against CD34+/CML primary cells were higher than those against CD34+/Norm cells (p = 0.005), suggesting that the combination of rosuvastatin and imatinib exerted growth-inhibitory effects against CML CD34+ cells, but not against normal CD34+ cells. Furthermore, results from RNA sequencing of control and statin-treated cells suggested that statins inhibited c-Myc-mediated and hematopoietic cell differentiation pathways. Thus, statins can be potentially repurposed to improve treatment outcomes in CML patients when combined with TKI therapy.