Josee Hebert

Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont | HMR · Department of Medicine

Rare acute leukemia (AL) components or subtypes such as blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) or early T‐cell precursor acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ETP‐ALL) can be difficult to detect by routine flow cytometry due to their immunophenotypes overlapping with other poorly differentiated AL. We hypothesized that using standardized Euro...

Targeted therapeutics for high-risk cancers remain an unmet medical need. Here we report the results of a large-scale screen of over 11,000 molecules for their ability to inhibit the survival and growth in vitro of human leukemic cells from multiple sources including patient samples, de novo generated human leukemia models, and established human le...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common type of acute leukemia in adults. Its risk factors include rare and highly penetrant somatic mutations. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have also identified four common inherited variants associated with AML risk, but these findings have not yet been confirmed in many independent datasets. Here...

The aim of this prospective, international multicenter, pseudorandomized study comparing RICT HCT to standard-of-care chemotherapy in intermediate- or high-risk AML patients 50–70 years using the donor versus no-donor concept. Part 1 included only patients with potential family donors (RD) at the date of HLA-typing of the first potential sibling or...

In this study, we leveraged machine-learning tools by evaluating expression of genes of pharmacological relevance to standard-AML chemotherapy (ara-C/daunorubicin/etoposide) in a discovery-cohort of pediatric AML patients ( N = 163; NCT00136084 ) and defined a 5-gene-drug resistance score (ADE-RS5) that was predictive of outcome (high MRD1 positivi...

The leukemic stem cell (LSC) score LSC-17 based on a stemness-related gene expression signature is an indicator of poor disease outcome in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, our understanding of the relationships between LSC and pre-leukemic cells is still incomplete. In particular, it is not known whether "niche-anchoring" of pre-leukemic cell...

The aim of this prospective, international multicenter, pseudorandomized study using the donor versus no-donor concept to compare RICT HCT to standard-of-care chemotherapy in intermediate- or high risk AML patients 50 – 70 years in CR1. Part 1 included only patients with potential family donors (RD) at the date of HLA-typing of the first potential...

In a phenotypical screen of 56 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patient samples and using a library of 10,000 compounds, we identified a hit with increased sensitivity toward SF3B1 -mutated and adverse risk AMLs. Through structure-activity relationship studies, this hit was optimized into a potent, specific, and nongenotoxic molecule called UM4118. We...

Monosomy 5 and deletions of the chromosome 5q (−5/del(5q)) are recurrent events in de novo adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML), reaching up to 40% of cases in secondary AML. These chromosome anomalies are associated with TP53 mutations and with very poor prognosis. Using the large Leucegene genomic and transcriptomic dataset composed of 48 −5/del(5q...

Introduction: t(6;9)(p23;q34.1)/DEK-NUP214 patients represent a discrete group of younger AML patients recognised as a separate disease entity in the World Health Organization classification of myeloid neoplasms. They typically display a dismal prognosis, higher relapse rate and a striking co-occurrence with FLT3-ITD mutations in > 70% of cases. DE...

Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) comprises diverse genomic subgroups and remains hard to treat in most patients. Despite breakthroughs in the therapeutic arsenal in recent years, clinical usage of therapeutic antibodies or chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells has been lagging in contrast to other hematological malignancies. In fact, CD...

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on enriched CD138 plasma cells is the standard method for identification of clinically relevant genetic abnormalities in multiple myeloma. However, FISH is a targeted analysis that can be challenging due to the genetic complexity of myeloma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of optical gen...

Acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) is a rare, developmentally restricted and highly lethal cancer of early childhood. The paucity and hypocellularity (due to myelofibrosis) of primary patient samples hamper the discovery of cell- and genotype-specific treatments. AMKL is driven by mutually exclusive chimeric fusion oncogenes in two thirds of ca...

Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) share numerous features with healthy hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). G-protein coupled receptor family C group 5 member C (GPRC5C) is a regulator of HSC dormancy. However, GPRC5C functionality in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is yet to be determined. Within patient AML cohorts, high GPRC5C levels correlated with poorer su...

Erythropoietin (EPO) suppresses drug-induced apoptosis in EPO-receptor-positive leukemia cells and allows cells to persist after drug treatment by promoting cellular senescence. Importantly a small proportion of senescent cells can re-enter the cell cycle and resume proliferation after drug treatment, resulting in disease recurrence/persistence. Us...

Given the particular attractivity of antibody-based immunotherapies, in vitro experimental approaches aiming to identify and quantify proteins directly located at the cell surface, such as the surfaceome, have been recently developed and improved. However, the "surface" enriched, yet noisy output obtained from available methods makes it challenging...

Gene marker extraction to evaluate risk in cancer can refine the diagnosis process and lead to adapted therapies and better survival. These survival analyses can be done through computer systems and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms such as the Cox-Proportional-Hazard model from gene expression (GE) RNA-Seq data. However, optimal tuning of CPH from...

High Mobility Group AT-hook 2 (HMGA2) is a non-histone chromatin-binding protein which is normally expressed in stem cells of various tissues and aberrantly detected in several tumor types. We recently observed that one fourth of human Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) specimens express HMGA2, which associates with a very poor prognosis. We now present...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer that originates from the bone marrow (BM). Under physiological conditions, the bone marrow supports the homeostasis of immune cells and hosts memory lymphoid cells. In this review, we summarize our present understanding of the role of the immune microenvironment on healthy bone marrow and on the development...

Early T-cell development is precisely controlled by E proteins, that indistinguishably include HEB/TCF12 and E2A/TCF3 transcription factors, together with NOTCH1 and pre-T cell receptor (TCR) signalling. Importantly, perturbations of early T-cell regulatory networks are implicated in leukemogenesis. NOTCH1 gain of function mutations invariably lead...

The heterogeneous response of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) to current anti-leukemic therapies is only partially explained by mutational heterogeneity. We previously identified GPR56 as a surface marker associated with poor outcome across genetic groups, which characterizes two leukemia stem cell (LSC)-enriched compartments with different self-renew...

Introduction: Venetoclax (ven) in combination with azacitidine (aza) or low-dose cytarabine (LDAC) has demonstrated efficacy for the first-line treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients who are deemed unfit for intensive induction chemotherapy. The efficacy of ven-based treatment for relapsed or refractory (r/r) AML has not been prospectiv...

Cholesterol homeostasis has been proposed as one mechanism contributing to chemoresistance in AML and hence, inclusion of statins in therapeutic regimens as part of clinical trials in AML has shown encouraging results. Chemical screening of primary human AML specimens by our group led to the identification of lipophilic statins as potent inhibitors...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has not benefited from innovative immunotherapies, mainly because of the lack of actionable immune targets. Using an original proteogenomic approach, we analyzed the major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC class I)-associated immunopeptidome of 19 primary AML samples and identified 58 tumor-specific antigens (TSAs...

To determine causes of apoptotic resistance, we analyzed 124 primary B cell NHL samples using BH3 profiling, a technique that measures the mitochondrial permeabilization upon exposure to synthetic BH3 peptides. Our cohort included samples from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), follicular lymphoma (FL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), high-...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/narcan/zcaa019.].

Chromosomal translocations involving KMT2A gene are one of the most common genetic alterations found in pediatric acute myeloid leukemias (AML) although the molecular mechanisms that initiate the disease remain incompletely defined. To elucidate these initiating events we have used a human model system of AML driven by the KMT2A-MLLT3 (KM3) fusion....

BACKGROUND Medical care and health research are jointly undergoing significant changes brought about by the Internet [1,2,3]. New online tools, apps, and programs are helping to facilitate unprecedented levels of data sharing and collaboration, potentially enabling more precisely targeted treatment and rapid research translation [4,5,6]. Patient po...

Background This study aims to identify a novel potential use for web portals in health care and health research: their adoption for the purposes of rapidly sharing health research findings with clinicians, scientists, and patients. In the era of precision medicine and learning health systems, the translation of research findings into targeted thera...

In B lymphocytes, the uracil N-glycosylase (UNG) excises genomic uracils made by activation-induced deaminase (AID), thus underpinning antibody gene diversification and oncogenic chromosomal translocations, but also initiating faithful DNA repair. Ung−/− mice develop B-cell lymphoma (BCL). However, since UNG has anti- and pro-oncogenic activities,...

Compared to solid tumors, antibody-based immunotherapy is underexploited in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), likely due to the limited availability of targetable surface antigens specifically expressed on AML cells. While targeted immunotherapies hold great promise, their development inexorably depends on the identification of cell surface antigens se...

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely used in treatment of different kinds of lymphoma and leukemia, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia. However, why only a subset of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients are sensitive to these compounds is not clear yet. Our group recently showed the association of RUNX1 mutations or rearrangements with an increased...

Complex karyotype (CK) acute myeloid leukemia (AML), especially those with TP53 anomalies, are particularly resistant to current therapies and remain one of the most heterogeneous and poorly characterized genetic group. Using global transcriptomic analyses, we identified the oncofetal HMGA2 gene as one of the most upregulated gene in CK AML. HMGA2...

RUNX1 is mutated in approximately 10% of adult AML. Although most RUNX1 mutations in this disease are believed to be acquired, they can also be germline. Indeed, germline RUNX1 mutations result in the well-described autosomal dominant familial platelet disorder with predisposition to hematologic malignancies (RUNX1-FPD, FPD/AML, FPDMM) in which abo...

Acute myeloid leukemias (AML) with mutations in the NPM1 gene (NPM1c+) represent a large AML subgroup with varying response to conventional treatment, highlighting the need to develop targeted therapeutic strategies for this disease. We screened a library of clinical drugs on a cohort of primary human AML specimens and identified the BCL2 inhibitor...

Calcitonin receptor-like (CALCRL) is a G-protein-coupled neuropeptide receptor involved in the regulation of blood pressure, angiogenesis, cell proliferation, and apoptosis, and is currently emerging as a novel target for the treatment of migraine. This study characterizes the role of CALCRL in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We analyzed CALCRL expre...

Background: Core-binding factor acute myeloid leukemias (CBF-AML) are characterized by inv(16)/t(16;16)(p13.1;q22) or t(8;21)(q22;q22.1) and encompass a distinct subgroup of AML with a favorable prognosis. This subgroup represents approximately 15% of newly diagnosed adult AML and is more frequent in young adults. With intensive chemotherapy, nearl...

Key Points Engineered human models of high-fatality pediatric leukemia are relevant to uncover disease biomarkers and therapeutic vulnerabilities. NUP98-KDM5A–associated AMKL expresses SELP, MPIG6B, and NEO1 biomarkers and is sensitive to pharmacologic inhibition with ruxolitinib.

Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL) are rare hematological malignancies occurring in children younger than 1 year of age, most frequently associated with KMT2A rearrangements (KMT2A‐r). The smaller subset without KMT2A‐r, which represents 20% of infant ALL cases, is poorly characterized. Here we report two cases of chemotherapy‐sensitive non...

Background Current strategies for risk stratification of patients with acute myeloid leukemia assign approximately 40% of patients to the intermediate-risk group, where uncertainty about optimal therapy still persists. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the cost effectiveness of a HMGA2 prognostic test based on HMGA2⁺/HMGA2⁻ expre...

Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS) is a rare and systemic disease mostly caused by mutations in the SBDS gene and characterized by pancreatic insufficiency, skeletal abnormalities, and a bone marrow dysfunction. In addition, SDS patients are predisposed to develop myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), typically during adul...

Mutations identified in acute myeloid leukemia patients are useful for prognosis and for selecting targeted therapies. Detection of such mutations using next-generation sequencing data requires a computationally intensive read mapping step followed by several variant calling methods. Targeted mutation identification drastically shifts the usual tra...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disease that results from the uncontrolled growth of primitive myeloid progenitor cells that are unable to undergo terminal differentiation. To better understand the genetic and epigenetic changes involved in leukemogenesis, we use a human model leukemia system where cord blood donor cells from a single donor are t...

To identify therapeutic targets in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), we chemically interrogated 200 sequenced primary specimens. Mubritinib, a known ERBB2 inhibitor, elicited strong anti-leukemic effects in vitro and in vivo. In the context of AML, mubritinib functions through ubiquinone-dependent inhibition of electron transport chain (ETC) complex I...

FLT3, DNMT3A, and NPM1 are the most frequently mutated genes in cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but little is known about how these mutations synergize upon cooccurrence. Here we show that triple-mutated AML is characterized by high leukemia stem cell (LSC) frequency, an aberrant leukemia-specific GPR56highCD34low immunophenoty...

Since the publication of the original article the authors noticed the the affiliation details for Paresh Vyas are incorrect. The correct affiliation details for this author are given below:

Patients diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia with complex karyotype (CK AML) have an adverse prognosis using current therapies, especially when accompanied by TP53 alterations. We hereby report the RNA-sequencing analysis of the 68 CK AML samples included in the Leucegene 415 patient cohort. We confirm the frequent occurrence of TP53 alterations...

Inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) is a promising therapeutic strategy in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), but patients respond heterogeneously. Through chemically interrogation of 200 sequenced specimens, we identified Mubritinib as a strong in vitro and in vivo anti-leukemic compound, acting through ubiquinone-dependent inhibition of E...

The adhesion family of G protein-coupled receptors (aGPCRs) comprises 33 members in human, several of which are distinctly expressed and functionally involved in polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs). As former work indicated the possible presence of the aGPCR GPR97 in granulocytes, we studied its cellular distribution, molecular structure, signal transdu...

RUNX1 is an essential transcription factor for definite hematopoiesis and plays important roles in immune function. Mutations in RUNX1 occur in 5-13% of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients (RUNX1mut ) and are associated with adverse outcome, highlighting the need for better genetic characterization of this AML subgroup and for the design of effic...

Background and study design. Reduced intensity conditioning transplantation (RICT) is a commonly applied treatment option for AML patients >50 years of age. Prospective, controlled studies comparing RICT with standard chemotherapy are warranted. In this study, we aimed to prevent selection biases. Thus, patients were included prior to HLA typing of...

Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with complex karyotype (CK) is associated with adverse prognosis with current therapies, in particular in the presence of TP53 mutations. Identification of novel therapeutic strategies is therefore urgently needed for this subgroup of patients. Methods and aims: As part of the Leucegene project, we RNA seque...

Acute myeloid leukemias (AML) are aggressive blood cancers characterized by an overall survival of 27% at 5 years. The main challenge in AML treatment originates from the genetic heterogeneity of the disease that contributes to the wide range of clinical outcomes observed. A large proportion (~35%) of AML patients exhibit no distinguishable chromos...

Introduction: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease with variable responses to therapy and clinical outcomes. Cytogenetics and molecular analyses help to stratify patients and to select therapy, especially regarding indication of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) after achieving complete remission (CR). Patients in the int...

Background: The anti-apoptotic protein BCL2 is expressed in most non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) including chronic lymphocytic leukemias (CLL), mantle cell lymphomas (MCL), follicular lymphomas (FL), diffuse large B cell lymphomas (DLBCL) and marginal zone lymphomas (MZL). BCL2 expression is associated with an inferior survival when co-expressed with M...

BACKGROUND: 60% to 70% of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients enter complete remission after induction regimen, but the majority relapse within 3 years due to the outgrowth of therapy resistant Leukemia Stem Cells (LSCs). Identification of novel treatment strategies effective against these cells thus represents an outstanding medical need. We dev...

Acute megakaryoblastic (CD41+CD61+) leukemia (AMKL) is a subset (10%) of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that typically affects young children (<3 yrs) and carries dismal cure rates (<40%), due to primary chemoresistance or early relapse. It was recently recognized that mutually exclusive chimeric fusion oncogenes are found in 60-70% of AMKL...

In acute myeloid leukemia (AML), risk stratification based on cytogenetics and mutation profiling is essential but remains insufficient to select the optimal therapy. Accurate biomarkers are needed to improve prognostic assessment. We analyzed RNA sequencing and survival data of 430 AML patients and identified HMGA2 as a novel prognostic marker. We...

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a medical emergency because of associated lethal early bleeding, a condition preventable by prompt diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. The mechanisms underlying the hemostatic anomalies of APL are not completely elucidated. RNA-sequencing-based characterization of APL (n = 30) was performed and compared to...

Mutations identified in each Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients are useful for prognosis and to select targeted therapies. Detection of such mutations by the analysis of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) data requires a computationally intensive read mapping step and application of several variant calling methods. Targeted mutation identification...

GFI1 is a transcriptional regulator expressed in lymphoid cells, and an "oncorequisite" factor required for development and maintenance of T-lymphoid leukemia. GFI1 deletion causes hypersensitivity to ionizing radiation, for which the molecular mechanism remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that GFI1 is required in T cells for the regulation of ke...