Within the family of blood stem cells, there are both hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that maintain normal hematopoiesis and leukemia stem cells (LSCs) that can lead to relapse after leukemia treatment. When HSCs transition from a quiescent state to an activated state, they may encounter functional failure, which is not only related to the occurrence of clinical diseases such as aplastic anemia and bone marrow failure but also the biggest challenge faced by HSCs during ex vivo expansion.

On September 20, 2024, Professors Wen Zhuoqian and Zhao Meng from our institute published a review article titled "Metabolic Regulation in Normal and Leukemic Stem Cells" in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, a subsidiary journal of Cell. In the article, based on the latest research results of their research group, the two professors comprehensively sorted out how cellular metabolism finely regulates the metabolic activities and functional maintenance of HSCs, and discussed corresponding clinical intervention strategies. At the same time, the article deeply elaborated on how LSCs rely on their unique metabolic characteristics to achieve chemoresistance and immune evasion mechanisms. The paper pointed out that maintaining a low-energy metabolic quiescent state is key to the long-term self-renewal of HSCs and is also an important mechanism for the chemoresistance of LSCs. In addition, the article also summarized clinical drugs and strategies for treating blood diseases by intervening in the energy metabolic state of blood stem cells.

Corresponding author Professor Zhao Meng, doctoral supervisor, is a talent introduced by Sun Yat-sen University and has received support from several national high-level talent projects. She mainly engages in hematopoietic stem cell research and has published more than 20 papers as the corresponding author in academic journals such as Nature Cell Biology (2 papers), Cell Stem Cell, Blood (3 papers), JEM, eLife, Adv Sci, JHO, with a total citation of more than 3500 times. She is the winner of the 2024 China Stem Cell Research Innovation Scientist Award, and her research results in 2022 and 2023 were successively selected as the top ten research progresses in Chinese hematology.

The first author, Associate Professor Wen Zhuoqian, doctoral supervisor, is a talent introduced by Sun Yat-sen University and a "Yat-sen Scholar Plan" new star scholar. He mainly researches the molecular regulatory mechanisms of the occurrence and relapse of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and develops corresponding treatment plans. In recent years, he has published more than 10 papers as the first or corresponding author in academic journals such as Blood (5 papers), Leukemia (2 papers).