Efficacy of JAK1/2 and BCL2 inhibition on human T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in vitro and in vivo

Autor: Walker, Kirsti L., Kabakov, Sabrina A., Zhu, Fen, Bouchlaka, Myriam N., Olson, Sydney L, Cho, Monica M., Quamine, Aicha E., Feils, Arika S., Gavcovich, Tara B., Rui, Lixin, Capitini, Christian M.
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2019
DOI: 10.1101/734913
Popis: Relapsed/refractory T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is difficult to salvage especially in heavily pretreated patients, thus novel targeted agents are sorely needed. Hyperactivated JAK/STAT and BCL2 overexpression promote increased T-ALL proliferation and survival, and targeting these pathways with ruxolitinib and venetoclax may provide an alternative approach to achieve clinical remissions. Ruxolitinib and venetoclax show a dose-dependent effect individually, but combination treatment synergistically reduces survival and proliferation of Jurkat and Loucy cells in vitro . Using a xenograft CXCR4+ Jurkat model, the combination treatment fails to improve survival, with death from hind limb paralysis. Despite on-target inhibition by the drugs, histopathology demonstrates increased leukemic infiltration into the central nervous system (CNS), which expresses CXCL12, as compared to liver or bone marrow. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy shows that neither ruxolitinib nor venetoclax can effectively cross the blood-brain barrier, limiting efficacy against CNS T-ALL. Deletion of CXCR4 on Jurkat cells by CRISPR/Cas9 results in prolonged survival and a reduction in overall and neurologic clinical scores. While combination therapy with ruxolitinib and venetoclax shows promise for treating T-ALL, additional inhibition of the CXCR4-CXCL12 axis will be needed to eliminate both systemic and CNS T-ALL burden and maximize the possibility of complete remission.
Databáze: OpenAIRE