Program: Oral and Poster Abstracts
Session: 603. Oncogenes and Tumor Suppressors: Poster III
We further investigated, in vivo, the role of miR-155 and miR-708 in AML by retroviral overexpression with Hoxa9 in murine bone marrow (mbm) cells followed by syngeneic transplantation. Overexpression of miR-155 in conjunction with Hoxa9 (Hoxa9/miR-155) caused a significantly accelerated onset of a myelomonocytic leukemia within 93 days (survival 93±23 days, p<0.0001), but still a less aggressive course of disease compared to mice transplanted with Hoxa9/Meis1 (survival 36±4 days, p<0.0001).
We then hypothesized that the combination of miR-155 and miR-708 could further replace the oncogenic potential of Meis1. Therefore, mbm cells were retrovirally transduced with Hoxa9, miR-155 and miR-708 (Hoxa9/155/708) or Hoxa9 and miR-708 (Hoxa9/miR-708) and functionally analyzed in vitro and in vivo. To our surprise, miR-708 abrogated the leukemogenic effect of Hoxa9, alone or in combination with Hoxa9/miR-155 in vivo(p=0.0117, p<0.0001, the mice were sacrificed after 197 days), with little or no engraftment.
To understand why miR-708, a potent tumor suppressor miRNA, is upregulated in the highly aggressive Hoxa9/Meis1 AML cells, we first showed in vivo that miR-708 does not impair the development of AML by Hoxa9/Meis1 cells. In order to explore the role of miR‑708 in leukemia initiating cells (LIC), we FACS-sorted subpopulations enriched for LIC based on c-kit, Mac-1 and Gr-1 expression within the Hoxa9/Meis1 cells. Of the three subpopulations (c-kit+Gr-1-Mac-1-, c-kit+Gr-1+Mac-1+, c-kit-Gr-1+Mac-1+) the transplanted c-kit+Gr-1-Mac-1- cells caused a significantly shorter survival (survival 36 days, range: 32-37d) compared to the other sorted subpopulations (p=0.0072 and p=0.0021, respectively), whereas the c-kit-Gr-1+Mac-1+ subpopulation exhibited the longest survival (survival 44 days, range: 42-51d). Based on these findings, we measured miR-708 and miR-155 levels in the sorted Hoxa9/Meis1 subpopulations by qRT-PCR. Strikingly, no difference compared to bulk cells was detected for miR-155, highlighting its role as an oncogenic driver in all subpopulations. In contrast, miR-708 showed a distinct expression pattern with lower expression in the LIC-enriched c‑kit+Gr-1-Mac-1- subpopulation compared to bulk (p=0.032), allowing discernment of the LIC enriched population and highlighting its role as an orchestrator of the leukemic hierarchy. Adapted from these findings, we developed an AML 4-step model (Hoxa9/miR-708, Hoxa9/ctrl, Hoxa9/miR-155, Hoxa9/Meis1) based on four immortalized Hoxa9 based cell lines with completely different in vivoproperties ranging from no engraftment to induction of highly aggressive AML.
Considering the central role of Hoxa9/Meis1 in AML, we demonstrate, for the first time, the concept of a tumor suppressor miRNA that stratifies the leukemic hierarchy driven by an oncogenic miRNA. Moreover, we present a new AML 4-step model as a novel tool that will allow detailed investigation of the impact of new oncogenes at every step of leukemogenesis.
Disclosures: Buske: CELLTRION, Inc.: Consultancy , Honoraria .
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