Toll-like receptor 4 signaling pathway is correlated with pathophysiological characteristics of AML patients and its inhibition using TAK-242 suppresses AML cell proliferation

•Most TLR4 genes pathway had higher expression in patients with poor prognosis or drug-resistance.•Inhibition of TLR4 is a novel treatment strategy in AML, individually or in combination with ATO.•TAK-242 inhibited cell proliferation of AML cell lines and altered their cell cycle distribution. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most severe blood cancers. Many studies have revealed that inflammation has an essential role in the progression of hematopoietic malignancies. Since the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathway, an important pathway involved in inflammation induction, has previously been associated with solid tumors, we hypothesized that it would be correlated with the pathophysiological characteristics of AML patients and could be considered as an anticancer target. We evaluated the mRNA expression of TLR4, MyD88, RelB, and NF-кB using qRT-PCR in bone-marrow samples of 40 AML patients categorized into four groups according to prognosis, cell type, age, and drug response. Next, we explored the expression of these genes in three AML cell lines (NB4, U937, and KG-1) and used TAK-242, a specific inhibitor of TLR4, to investigate whether this inhibition could suppress AML cell proliferation using cell-cycle analysis. The effect of TAK-242 on arsenic trioxide (ATO) cytotoxicity was also assessed. The results of qRT-PCR showed that most genes had higher expression in patients with poor prognosis or drug-resistant statues. They were also overexpressed in patients with less-differentiated cells. Moreover, TAK-242 inhibited cell proliferation of all the cell lines and altered their cell cycle distribution. It could also intensify the cytotoxicity of ATO in combination therapy. In sum, the TLR4 pathway was related to pathophysiological characteristics of AML and its inhibition using TAK-242 could be considered as a promising treatment strategy in the TLR4 expressing AML cells, individually or in combination with ATO.