Targeting mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation eradicates therapy-resistant chronic myeloid leukemia stem cells.

Treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with imatinib mesylate and other second- and/or third-generation c-Abl-specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has substantially extended patient survival. However, TKIs primarily target differentiated cells and do not eliminate leukemic stem cells (LSCs). Therefore, targeting minimal residual disease to prevent acquired resistance and/or disease relapse requires identification of new LSC-selective target(s) that can be exploited therapeutically. Considering that malignant transformation involves cellular metabolic changes, which may in turn render the transformed cells susceptible to specific assaults in a selective manner, we searched for such vulnerabilities in CML LSCs. We performed metabolic analyses on both stem cell-enriched (CD34