Noncanonical β-catenin interactions promote leukemia-initiating activity in early T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Autor: Patrizio Panelli, Elisabetta De Santis, Mattia Colucci, Francesco Tamiro, Francesca Sansico, Mattia Miroballo, Emanuele Murgo, Costanzo Padovano, Sam Gusscott, Michele Ciavarella, Elizabeth A. Chavez, Fabrizio Bianchi, Giovanni Rossi, Angelo M. Carella, Christian Steidl, Andrew P. Weng, Vincenzo Giambra
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Blood. 141:1597-1609
ISSN: 1528-0020
0006-4971
Popis: T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a T-cell malignancy characterized by cell subsets and enriched with leukemia-initiating cells (LICs). β-Catenin modulates LIC activity in T-ALL. However, its role in maintaining established leukemia stem cells remains largely unknown. To identify functionally relevant protein interactions of β-catenin in T-ALL, we performed coimmunoprecipitation followed by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Here, we report that a noncanonical functional interaction of β-catenin with the Forkhead box O3 (FOXO3) transcription factor positively regulates LIC-related genes, including the cyclin-dependent kinase 4, which is a crucial modulator of cell cycle and tumor maintenance. We also confirm the relevance of these findings using stably integrated fluorescent reporters of β-catenin and FOXO3 activity in patient-derived xenografts, which identify minor subpopulations with enriched LIC activity. In addition, gene expression data at the single-cell level of leukemic cells of primary patients at the time of diagnosis and minimal residual disease (MRD) up to 30 days after the standard treatments reveal that the expression of β-catenin– and FOXO3-dependent genes is present in the CD82+CD117+ cell fraction, which is substantially enriched with LICs in MRD as well as in early T-cell precursor ALL. These findings highlight key functional roles for β-catenin and FOXO3 and suggest novel therapeutic strategies to eradicate aggressive cell subsets in T-ALL.
Databáze: OpenAIRE