FOXO1-p300-Txn Circuit Regulates Oxidative Stress Responses in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphomas Characterized By Enhanced Oxidative Phosphorylation

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a clinically and molecularly heterogeneous disease. The comparison of DLBCLs transcriptional profiles using multiple clustering algorithms led to the identification of distinct DLBCL subtypes reflecting tumor-intrinsic features. The OxPhos-DLBCL subtype is characterized by enhanced mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, a major source of potentially toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, we investigated the role of potential mechanisms attenuating ROS toxicity in this DLBCL subtype.

We found significantly increased thioredoxin (TXN) mRNA abundance in DLBCLs classified as OxPhos subtype compared to other subtypes. The overall survival (OS) of patients with high TXN mRNA expression was significantly shorter than of those with low TXN mRNA expression, regardless of treatment regimen (R-CHOP and CHOP). TXN overexpression in OxPhos-DLBCLs was also confirmed in a cell line panel at protein level using immunoblotting. To explain transcriptional mechanisms responsible for differential TXN expression in different DLBCLs, we analyzed the TXN promoter and identified two BCL6 binding sites within 1kb upstream of TXN transcription start site. Unlike in other molecular subtypes, BCL6 does not exhibit a repressor activity in OxPhos-DLBCLs (PNAS, 2007; 104: 3207-12). Using luciferase reporter assays and shRNA-mediated gene expression knock-down, we demonstrated that relative differences in TXN abundance between DLBCL subtypes are at least in part caused by the lack of BCL6 transcription repressor activity.

We next tested the consequences of TXN depletion in DLBCLs. We found that OxPhos cells with silenced TXN expression were uniformly more sensitive to apoptosis induced by ROS production than control cells. TXN inhibition sensitized all tested cell lines to doxorubicin, the fundamental drug used in DLBCL chemotherapy acting in part as a ROS inducer.

In addition to its role in maintaining redox homeostasis, TXN also regulates transcriptional responses to ROS. For example, TXN reduces disulfide bonds between FOXO4 and acetyltransferase p300, which results in reduced FOXO4 acetylation and impaired proapoptotic signaling. For this reason, we assessed whether p300 and TXN are involved in acetylation of FOXO1, a major FOXO member expressed in DLBCLs. In cells with blocked TXN activity, FOXO1 acetylation was significantly higher compared to cells overexpressing wild-type TXN. TXN decreased p300-mediated FOXO1 acetylation, reduced its proapoptotic activity and expression of FOXO1-dependent genes (TRAIL, p27, BIM). We found that FOXO1 and p300 interact in redox and TXN-dependent manner and identified a conserved FOXO1’s Cys612 to be responsible for FOXO1-p300 binding. We mutated FOXO1 C612 to Ala and found that when cotransfected with p300, C612A FOXO1 exhibited dramatically suppressed ROS-induced acetylation. Blockade of FOXO1 acetylation resulted in markedly lower expression of FOXO1 target genes, higher cellular proliferation and lower apoptosis. Furthermore, TXN inhibited FOXO1 nuclear translocation in response to oxidative stress in OxPhos-DLBCLs. Finally, silencing FOXO1 in OxPhos cells with knocked-down TXN expression markedly inhibited DLBCL cell line apoptosis in response to oxidative stress, suggesting that FOXO1 is an essential TXN-regulated sensor and effector of ROS toxicity in OxPhos-DLBCL cells.

Taken together, these results demonstrate that TXN is overexpressed in a subset of DLBCLs, and high TXN mRNA abundance is related to shorter OS of DLBCL patients. TXN knock-down enhances oxidative stress toxicity in OxPhos cell lines at least in part by facilitating FOXO1 nuclear retention and increasing acetylation of this transcription factor, thus augmenting its proapoptotic activity.