scholarly journals PU.1, a Versatile Transcription Factor and a Suppressor of Myeloid Leukemia

Author(s):  
Shinichiro Takahashi
2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 2075-2086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ari M. Melnick ◽  
Jennifer J. Westendorf ◽  
Adam Polinger ◽  
Graeme W. Carlile ◽  
Sally Arai ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The ETO protein was originally identified by its fusion to the AML-1 transcription factor in translocation (8;21) associated with the M2 form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The resulting AML-1–ETO fusion is an aberrant transcriptional regulator due to the ability of ETO, which does not bind DNA itself, to recruit the transcriptional corepressors N-CoR, SMRT, and Sin3A and histone deacetylases. The promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger (PLZF) protein is a sequence-specific DNA-binding transcriptional factor fused to retinoic acid receptor α in acute promyelocytic leukemia associated with the (11;17)(q23;q21) translocation. PLZF also mediates transcriptional repression through the actions of corepressors and histone deacetylases. We found that ETO is one of the corepressors recruited by PLZF. The PLZF and ETO proteins associate in vivo and in vitro, and ETO can potentiate transcriptional repression by PLZF. The N-terminal portion of ETO forms complexes with PLZF, while the C-terminal region, which was shown to bind to N-CoR and SMRT, is required for the ability of ETO to augment transcriptional repression by PLZF. The second repression domain (RD2) of PLZF, not the POZ/BTB domain, is necessary to bind to ETO. Corepression by ETO was completely abrogated by histone deacetylase inhibitors. This identifies ETO as a cofactor for a sequence-specific transcription factor and indicates that, like other corepressors, it functions through the action of histone deactylase.


Blood ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 90 (7) ◽  
pp. 2591-2600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Morosetti ◽  
Dorothy J. Park ◽  
Alexey M. Chumakov ◽  
Isabelle Grillier ◽  
Masaaki Shiohara ◽  
...  

Human C/EBPε is a newly cloned CCAAT/enhancer-binding transcription factor. Initial studies indicated it may be an important regulator of human myelopoiesis. To elucidate the range of expression of C/EBPε, we used reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis and examined its expression in 28 hematopoietic and 14 nonhematopoietic cell lines, 16 fresh myeloid leukemia samples, and normal human hematopoietic stem cells and their mature progeny. Prominent expression of C/EBPε mRNA occurred in the late myeloblastic and promyelocytic cell lines (NB4, HL60, GFD8), the myelomonoblastic cell lines (U937 and THP-1), the early myeloblast cell lines (ML1, KCL22, MDS92), and the T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia cell lines CEM and HSB-2. For the acute promyelocytic leukemia cell line NB4, C/EBPε was the only C/EBP family member that was easily detected by RT-PCR. No C/EBPε mRNA was found in erythroid, megakaryocyte, basophil, B lymphoid, or nonhematopoietic cell lines. Most acute myeloid leukemia samples (11 of 12) from patients expressed C/EBPε. Northern blot and RT-PCR analyses showed that C/EBPε mRNA decreased when the HL60 and KG-1 myeloblast cell lines were induced to differentiate toward macrophages. Similarly, Western blot analysis showed that expression of C/EBPε protein was either unchanged or decreased slightly as the promyelocytic cell line NB4 differentiated down the macrophage-like pathway after treatment with a potent vitamin D3 analog (KH1060). In contrast, C/EBPε protein levels increased dramatically as NB4 cells were induced to differentiate down the granulocytic pathway after exposure to 9-cis retinoic acid. Furthermore, very early, normal hematopoietic stem cells (CD34+/CD38−), purified from humans had very weak expression of C/EBPε mRNA, but levels increased as these cells differentiated towards granulocytes. Likewise, purified granulocytes appeared to express higher levels of C/EBPε mRNA than purified macrophages. Addition of phosphothiolated antisense, but not sense oligonucleotides to C/EBPε, decreased clonal growth of HL-60 and NB4 cells by about 50% compared with control cultures. Taken together, our results indicate that expression of C/EBPε is restricted to hematopoietic tissues, especially myeloid cells as they differentiate towards granulocytes and inhibition of its expression in HL-60 and NB4 myeloblasts and promyelocytes decreased their proliferative capacity. Therefore, this transcriptional factor may play an important role in the process of normal myeloid development.


Blood ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 95 (7) ◽  
pp. 2198-2203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liquan Gao ◽  
Ilaria Bellantuono ◽  
Annika Elsässer ◽  
Stephen B. Marley ◽  
Myrtle Y. Gordon ◽  
...  

Abstract Hematologic malignancies such as acute and chronic myeloid leukemia are characterized by the malignant transformation of immature CD34+ progenitor cells. Transformation is associated with elevated expression of the Wilm's tumor gene encoded transcription factor (WT1). Here we demonstrate that WT1 can serve as a target for cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) with exquisite specificity for leukemic progenitor cells. HLA-A0201– restricted CTL specific for WT1 kill leukemia cell lines and inhibit colony formation by transformed CD34+ progenitor cells isolated from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), whereas colony formation by normal CD34+ progenitor cells is unaffected. Thus, the tissue-specific transcription factor WT1 is an ideal target for CTL-mediated purging of leukemic progenitor cells in vitro and for antigen-specific therapy of leukemia and other WT1-expressing malignancies in vivo.


Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 4337-4337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zlatana Pasalic ◽  
Belay Tizazu ◽  
Leticia Archangelo ◽  
Alexandre Krause ◽  
Greif Philipp ◽  
...  

Abstract The balanced chromosomal translocation t(10;11)(p13;q14) results in the CALM/AF10 fusion gene. This translocation is found in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) and malignant lymphoma. The CALM/AF10 fusion gene has recently been shown to cause an aggressive biphenotypic leukemia in a murine bone marrow transplant model. The CALM (Clathrin Assembly Lymphoid Myeloid leukemia gene) gene product is a clathrin assembly protein which plays a role in clathrin mediated endocytosis and trans Golgi network trafficking. AF10 is a putative transcription factor most likely involved in processes related to chromatin organization and has polycomb group gene like properties. To learn more about the function of the CALM/AF10 fusion protein, we searched for protein interaction partners of CALM. In a yeast two hybrid screen the four and a half LIM domain protein FHL2 was identified as putative CALM interacting partner. The CALM FHL2 interaction was confirmed by co-transformation assay in yeast and by GST-pulldown experiments. The FHL2 interaction domain of CALM was mapped to amino acids 294 to 335 of CALM using the yeast two hybrid assay. In co-localization studies with transiently expressed fluorescent protein tagged CALM and FHL2, both proteins showed cytoplasmatic localization. Expression analysis (Affymetrix based) in different AML subtypes showed a significantly higher expression of FHL2 in AML with complex aberrant karyotypes compared to AML with normal karyotypes or balanced chromosomal translocations like the t(8;21), inv(16) or t(15;17). FHL2, which is also known as DRAL (downregulated in rhabdomyosarcoma LIM protein), is a TP53 responsive gene known to interact with numerous proteins in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm and can function as a transcriptional cofactor. Known FHL2 interactors include TP53, BRCA1, PLZF (promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein), the proto-oncogene SKI1 and beta-catenin. High expression of FHL2 in breast cancer has recently been shown to be associated with an adverse prognosis. CALM has been shown to shuttle between the nucleus and the cytoplasm because inhibition of CREM-mediated nuclear export by leptomycin B leads to the accumulation of CALM in the nucleus. Reporter gene assays using a GAL4-DNA binding domain CALM fusion protein and a GAL4 responsive luciferase reporter were able to demonstrate a transcriptional activation function of CALM. We are currently investigation the effect of FHL2 co-expression on this aspect of the CALM function. It is thus conceivable that FHL2 is playing an important role in CALM/AF10-mediated leukemogenesis by tethering the CALM/AF10 fusion protein to various nuclear transcription factor complexes.


Blood ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 114 (22) ◽  
pp. 3979-3979
Author(s):  
Georg Aue ◽  
Yang Du ◽  
Susan Cleveland ◽  
Stephen Smith ◽  
Utpal P. Dave ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 3979 Poster Board III-915 Mice that express 20% the normal levels of the Ets transcription factor Pu.1 develop AML, unlike mice that express 50% to 90% the normal levels, indicating that Pu.1 is a dosage-sensitive tumor suppressor gene. Furthermore, 3 of 13 AMLs induced by transplanting mice with cells transduced with a Sox4 oncogene-containing retrovirus were found to carry a Sox4 retroviral integration in one Pu.1 allele, suggesting that downregulation of Pu.1 may cooperate with Sox4 in AML induction. Since the other Pu.1 allele remains intact in these AMLs and a 50% decrease in Pu.1 expression is not sufficient to induce AML, we hypothesized that Sox4 might further downregulate Pu.1 expression in these AMLs. To test this hypothesis, we transfected HL60 promyelocytes with an expression vector carrying both GFP and Sox4 cDNAs or a GFP vector control. Transfected GFP+ cells were purified by flow cytometry and Pu.1 mRNA levels were analyzed by real-time RT-PCR. Pu.1 mRNA levels were consistently downregulated 4 to 10 fold in cells transfected with Sox4 cDNA compared to cells transfected with the vector control, while Beta-actin mRNA levels were maintained constant, confirming that overexpression of Sox4 downregulates Pu.1 expression in myeloid cells. The decrease of Pu.1 mRNA was observed as early as 8 hours after Sox4 transfection, further suggesting that Sox4 may directly repress the Pu.1 promoter in myeloid cells. Consistent with this, analysis of a published microarray databases comprising 285 de novo AML patient samples showed that SOX4 expression is significantly negatively correlated with Pu.1 expression (r= -0.337, p-value<0.001). In order to confirm that downregulation of Pu.1 cooperates with Sox4 in AML induction, we infected Pu.1 heterozygous knockout or wild type bone marrow cells with the Sox4 retrovirus and then monitored the time of AML development in transplanted mice. An increased penetrance of myeloid leukemia was observed in mice transplanted with Sox4-infected Pu.1 +/- bone marrow (95%) compared to mice receiving Sox4-infected wild type marrow (60%, p<0.001). Myeloid leukemia was confirmed by histology in all animals (100%) of the Sox4-infected Pu.1 +/ cohort. A Southern blot with a Sox4 probe confirmed clonal integrations. Consistent with our hypothesis, integration site analysis of the Sox4-infected Pu.1 +/- cohort tumor spleen DNA could not detect a Pu.1 integration site. Binding motif analysis found a Sox4 binding site in an upper regulatory element (URE) 14 kb upstream of the Pu.1 gene. Chromatin immunohybridization (ChIP) with a Sox4 antibody performed in 32D clone 3 lymphoblasts confirmed binding in a highly conserved area of the Pu.1 upstream control region. An electromobility shift assay (EMSA) is currently pursued. In summary, these results elucidate how the transcription factor Pu.1 is regulated by Sox4 though an upper regulatory element and can play a role in leukemogenesis. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


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