RESUMEN
Despite the advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, a proportion of chronic myeloid leukemia patients in chronic phase fail to respond to imatinib or to second-generation inhibitors and progress to blast crisis. Until now, improvements in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for chronic myeloid leukemia transformation from chronic phase to the aggressive blast crisis remain limited. Here we present a large parallel sequencing analysis of 10 blast crisis samples and of the corresponding autologous chronic phase controls that reveals, for the first time, recurrent mutations affecting the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2A gene (UBE2A, formerly RAD6A). Additional analyses on a cohort of 24 blast crisis, 41 chronic phase as well as 40 acute myeloid leukemia and 38 atypical chronic myeloid leukemia patients at onset confirmed that UBE2A mutations are specifically acquired during chronic myeloid leukemia progression, with a frequency of 16.7% in advanced phases. In vitro studies show that the mutations here described cause a decrease in UBE2A activity, leading to an impairment of myeloid differentiation in chronic myeloid leukemia cells.
Asunto(s)
Leucemia Mielógena Crónica BCR-ABL Positiva/genética , Leucemia Mieloide Aguda/genética , Mutación , Enzimas Ubiquitina-Conjugadoras/genética , Crisis Blástica/genética , Diferenciación Celular , Progresión de la Enfermedad , Resistencia a Antineoplásicos/genética , Femenino , Células HEK293 , Humanos , Mesilato de Imatinib/uso terapéutico , Células K562 , Leucemia Mielógena Crónica BCR-ABL Positiva/patología , Leucemia Mieloide Aguda/patología , Masculino , Inhibidores de Proteínas Quinasas/farmacología , Análisis de Secuencia de ADN , Secuenciación del ExomaAsunto(s)
Exoma , Mesilato de Imatinib/administración & dosificación , Leucemia Mielógena Crónica BCR-ABL Positiva , Mutación , Supervivencia sin Enfermedad , Femenino , Secuenciación de Nucleótidos de Alto Rendimiento , Humanos , Leucemia Mielógena Crónica BCR-ABL Positiva/tratamiento farmacológico , Leucemia Mielógena Crónica BCR-ABL Positiva/genética , Leucemia Mielógena Crónica BCR-ABL Positiva/mortalidad , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Tasa de SupervivenciaRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) is caused by the BCR/ABL1 fusion gene. Both the presence and the levels of BCR/ABL1 expression seem to be critical for CML progression from chronic phase (CP) to blast crisis (BC). After the oncogenic translocation, the BCR/ABL1 gene is under the transcriptional control of BCR promoter but the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of oncogene expression are mostly unknown. METHODS: A region of 1443bp of the functional BCR promoter was studied for transcription factor binding sites through in-silico analysis and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation experiments. BCR and BCR/ABL1 expression levels were analysed in CML cell lines after over-expression or silencing of MYC transcription factor. A luciferase reporter assay was used to confirm its activity on BCR promoter. RESULTS: In the present study we demonstrate that MYC and its partner MAX bind to the BCR promoter, leading to up-regulation of BCR and BCR/ABL1 at both transcriptional and protein levels. Accordingly, silencing of MYC expression in various BCR/ABL1 positive cell lines causes significant downregulation of BCR and BCR/ABL1, which consequently leads to decreased proliferation and induction of cell death. CONCLUSIONS: Here we describe a regulatory pathway modulating BCR and BCR/ABL1 expression, showing that the BCR promoter is under the transcriptional control of the MYC/MAX heterodimer. Since MYC is frequently over-expressed in BC, this phenomenon could play a critical role in BCR/ABL1 up-regulation and blast aggressiveness acquired during CML evolution.