Abstract
Introduction: There is growing interest in the role of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) regulators in immune cells development, but the functional role of EMT in B-cell biology and transformation remains obscured.1, 2 The outcomes of the "classical" EMT activation of epithelial cells are known; committed migratory cells do not divide and become resistant to apoptotic stimuli.Importantly, EMT supports migratory cells' "stem cell-like" properties, allowing differentiation into more than one cell type and/or terminal differentiation and senescence.Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) cells engage with antigen and microenvironment stimuli in tissue sites that lead to proliferation, followed by their egress from the tissue sites into the peripheral blood.This lifecycle implies functional changes altering CLL cell movement.3 Here we show EMT-like activation in CLL that correlates with disease progression and transformation.We identified a targetable candidate and show it can be inhibited by small molecule ligands.