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Review
. 2022 Dec 31;14(12):e33165.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.33165. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Resistance Mechanism of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells Against Daunorubicin and Cytarabine: A Literature Review

Affiliations
Review

Resistance Mechanism of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells Against Daunorubicin and Cytarabine: A Literature Review

Elly Y Arwanih et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematological malignancy commonly found in adult patients. Low overall survival and resistance to therapy are the main issues in AML. The first line of treatment for AML chemotherapy is the induction phase, namely, the phase to induce remission by administering a combination of daunorubicin (DNR) for three days followed by administration of cytarabine (Ara-C) with continuous infusion for seven days, which is referred to as "3 + 7." Such induction therapy has been the standard therapy for AML for the last four decades. This review article is made to discuss daunorubicin and cytarabine from their chemical structure, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and mechanisms of resistance in AML.

Keywords: acute myeloid leukemia; aml; chemotherapy; cytarabine; daunorubicin; leukemia; resistance; treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Daunorubicin structure
Authors' creation.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Cytarabine structure
Authors' creation.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Mechanism of action of cytarabine as an anticancer drug
dCK: deoxycytidine kinase; dCMK: deoxycytidine monophosphate kinase; NDK: nucleoside diphosphate kinase; hENT: human equilibrative nucleoside transporter; hCNT: human concentrative nucleoside transporter. Authors' creation.

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