From June 12 to 15, 2025, the 30th European Hematology Association (EHA2025) Congress was held in Milan, Italy. With the theme of "Borderless Hematology", experts and scholars from more than 100 countries and regions worldwide focused on innovative frontiers in the diagnosis and treatment of blood disease.
Professor He Pengcheng’ team from Department of Hematology of the First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Xi 'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) was invited to present five innovative research results, which captivated widespread attention from international peers.
In the oral presentation session, assistant research fellow Feng Hui delivered a presentation entitled “De novo design of a chromatin reader zmynd8-targeting peptide PROTAC for acute myeloid leukemia therapy”. Targeting the treatment dilemma of acute myeloid leukemia, AI-aided design was innovatively employed to develop a polypeptide degradation drug targeting ZMYND8, which is traditionally considered as an "impossible drug" target. Experiments demonstrated that this drug can effectively degrade the target protein in AML cells, significantly inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis, and show high anti-AML activity and safety both in vitro and in vivo. In-depth mechanism research revealed its new pathway of affecting mitochondrial function, providing groundbreaking new strategy for AML-targeted therapy.
Four team’s research results were presented in the posters.
Associate research fellow Niu Fan, assistant research fellow Liu Yi and PhD. Yang Runyu demonstrated the basic research of hematological malignancies entitled “Tbk1-optn interaction promotes AML proliferation and venetoclax resistance by activating mitophagy, targeted by a novel inhibitor peptide”, “A novel peptide-based PROTAC selectively targeting nucleus export protein xpo1 for multiple myeloma therapy” and “Identification of novel high-risk subtypes by development of multi-omics-based molecular classification to guide precision medicine in acute myeloid leukemia”, respectively.
Deputy Chief Physician Zhu Huachao proposed innovative solutions based on clinical problems and illustrated the outcomes entitled "Efficiency and safety of hetrombopag combined with high-dose dexamethasone as first-line therapy for newly diagnosed primary immune thrombocytopenia: a multicenter, single-arm prospective study".
The team's systematic innovations in basic mechanism exploration, targeted drug research and development (especially the design of peptide degradation agents/inhibitors to overcome the bottleneck of "impossible drug") and precise diagnosis and treatment typing have provided important solutions to key clinical problems of hematological tumors, which captivate widespread attention and recognition from global colleagues and peers. An expert from Switzerland expressed that "The research findings contributed by Professor He's team on the development strategy of polypeptide degrading agents and the mechanism of overcoming drug resistance are highly enlightening, especially the use of AI and structural biology to target proteins that are traditionally difficult to intervene, providing valuable ideas for the research and development of new drugs for hematological tumors around the world."
