T-ALL leukemia stem cell 'stemness' is epigenetically controlled by the master regulator SPI1
- Peking University, China
- Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Germany
Abstract
Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) are regarded as the origins and key therapeutic targets of leukemia, but limited knowledge is available on the key determinants of LSC 'stemness'. Using single-cell RNA-seq analysis, we identify a master regulator, SPI1, the LSC-specific expression of which determines the molecular signature and activity of LSCs in the murine Pten-null T-ALL model. Although initiated by PTEN-controlled b-catenin activation, Spi1 expression and LSC 'stemness' are maintained by a b-catenin-SPI1-HAVCR2 regulatory circuit independent of the leukemogenic driver mutation. Perturbing any component of this circuit either genetically or pharmacologically can prevent LSC formation or eliminate existing LSCs. LSCs lose their 'stemness' when Spi1 expression is silenced by DNA methylation, but Spi1 expression can be reactivated by 5-AZ treatment. Importantly, similar regulatory mechanisms may be also present in human T-ALLs.
Data availability
All the Bulk RNA-seq, Single cell RNA-seq and BiSulfite-seq data for this study are deposited in NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus under the accession number GSE115356.
-
T-ALL Leukemia Stem CellNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE115356.
-
Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective TreatmentsNCBI database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP), phs000464.
-
Gene Expression Profile of 57 human T-ALL samples collected in human clinical trial E2993NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE33469.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Peking-tsinghua Center for Life science
- Hong Wu
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics
- Hong Wu
Bayer Pharma
- Hong Wu
National Key Research (Grant No. 2017YFA0505200)
- Xiaoguang Lei
National Science Foundation of China
- Lu Yang
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experimental protocols were approved by the Peking University Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).This study were approved by the Peking University Animal Care and Use Committee (LSC-WuH-1).
Reviewing Editor
- A Thomas Look, Harvard Medical School, United States
Version history
- Received: May 13, 2018
- Accepted: November 9, 2018
- Accepted Manuscript published: November 9, 2018 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: November 23, 2018 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2018, Zhu et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 2,999
- Page views
-
- 557
- Downloads
-
- 24
- Citations
Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Crossref, PubMed Central, Scopus.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
T-ALL leukemia stem cell 'stemness' is epigenetically controlled by the master regulator SPI1
eLife 7:e38314.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38314
Further reading
-
- Cancer Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
Cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes (CTLs) are key players of adaptive anti-tumor immunity based on their ability to specifically recognize and destroy tumor cells. Many cancer immunotherapies rely on unleashing CTL function. However, tumors can evade killing through strategies which are not yet fully elucidated. To provide deeper insight into tumor evasion mechanisms in an antigen-dependent manner, we established a human co-culture system composed of tumor and primary immune cells. Using this system, we systematically investigated intrinsic regulators of tumor resistance by conducting a complementary CRISPR screen approach. By harnessing CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) and CRISPR knockout (KO) technology in parallel, we investigated gene gain-of-function as well as loss-of-function across genes with annotated function in a colon carcinoma cell line. CRISPRa and CRISPR KO screens uncovered 187 and 704 hits respectively, with 60 gene hits overlapping between both. These data confirmed the role of interferon‑γ (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and autophagy pathways and uncovered novel genes implicated in tumor resistance to killing. Notably, we discovered that ILKAP encoding the integrin-linked kinase-associated serine/threonine phosphatase 2C, a gene previously unknown to play a role in antigen specific CTL-mediated killing, mediate tumor resistance independently from regulating antigen presentation, IFN-γ or TNF-α responsiveness. Moreover, our work describes the contrasting role of soluble and membrane-bound ICAM-1 in regulating tumor cell killing. The deficiency of membrane-bound ICAM-1 (mICAM-1) or the overexpression of soluble ICAM-1 (sICAM-1) induced resistance to CTL killing, whereas PD-L1 overexpression had no impact. These results highlight the essential role of ICAM-1 at the immunological synapse between tumor and CTL and the antagonist function of sICAM-1.
-
- Cancer Biology
- Cell Biology
Anthracyclines, such as doxorubicin (Dox), are widely used chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. However, they frequently induce cardiotoxicity leading to dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure. This study sought to investigate the role of the exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (EPAC) in Dox-induced cardiotoxicity and the potential cardioprotective effects of EPAC inhibition. We show that Dox induces DNA damage and cardiomyocyte cell death with apoptotic features. Dox also led to an increase in both cAMP concentration and EPAC1 activity. The pharmacological inhibition of EPAC1 (with CE3F4) but not EPAC2 alleviated the whole Dox-induced pattern of alterations. When administered in vivo, Dox-treated WT mice developed a dilated cardiomyopathy which was totally prevented in EPAC1 knock-out (KO) mice. Moreover, EPAC1 inhibition potentiated Dox-induced cell death in several human cancer cell lines. Thus, EPAC1 inhibition appears as a potential therapeutic strategy to limit Dox-induced cardiomyopathy without interfering with its antitumoral activity.
