As recent findings demonstrated that PU.1 is a transcriptional regulator of the miR‐29b2/c locus in APL‐derived cells,16 we investigated here the ability of this transcription factor to modulate miR‐29b in non‐APL cells, in order to identify agonists that, up‐regulating this transcription factor may be useful in hypomethylation‐based therapies. Here, SPI1 is linked to acute promyelocytic leukemia.