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Barone C, Orsenigo R, Cazzola A, D'Errico E, Patelli A, Quattrini G, Vergani B, Bombelli S, De Marco S, D'Orlando C, Bianchi C, Leone BE, Meneveri R, Biondi A, Cazzaniga G, Rabbitts TH, Brunelli S, Azzoni E. Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC)-Independent Progenitors Are Susceptible to Mll-Af9-Induced Leukemic Transformation. Cancers (Basel) 2023; 15:3624. [PMID: 37509285 PMCID: PMC10377085 DOI: 10.3390/cancers15143624] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Revised: 07/07/2023] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Infant acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease, genetically distinct from its adult counterpart. Chromosomal translocations involving the KMT2A gene (MLL) are especially common in affected infants of less than 1 year of age, and are associated with a dismal prognosis. While these rearrangements are likely to arise in utero, the cell of origin has not been conclusively identified. This knowledge could lead to a better understanding of the biology of the disease and support the identification of new therapeutic vulnerabilities. Over the last few years, important progress in understanding the dynamics of fetal hematopoiesis has been made. Several reports have highlighted how hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) provide little contribution to fetal hematopoiesis, which is instead largely sustained by HSC-independent progenitors. Here, we used conditional Cre-Lox transgenic mouse models to engineer the Mll-Af9 translocation in defined subsets of embryonic hematopoietic progenitors. We show that embryonic hematopoiesis is generally permissive for Mll-Af9-induced leukemic transformation. Surprisingly, the selective introduction of Mll-Af9 in HSC-independent progenitors generated a transplantable myeloid leukemia, whereas it did not when introduced in embryonic HSC-derived cells. Ex vivo engineering of the Mll-Af9 rearrangement in HSC-independent progenitors using a CRISPR/Cas9-based approach resulted in the activation of an aberrant myeloid-biased self-renewal program. Overall, our results demonstrate that HSC-independent hematopoietic progenitors represent a permissive environment for Mll-Af9-induced leukemic transformation, and can likely act as cells of origin of infant AML.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristiana Barone
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Roberto Orsenigo
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Anna Cazzola
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Elisabetta D'Errico
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Arianna Patelli
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Giulia Quattrini
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Barbara Vergani
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Silvia Bombelli
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Sofia De Marco
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Cristina D'Orlando
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Cristina Bianchi
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Biagio Eugenio Leone
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Raffaella Meneveri
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Andrea Biondi
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
- Pediatrics, Fondazione IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Giovanni Cazzaniga
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
- Centro Tettamanti, IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Terence Howard Rabbitts
- Division of Cancer Therapeutics, Institute of Cancer Research, 15 Cotswold Road, Sutton, London SM2 5NG, UK
| | - Silvia Brunelli
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Emanuele Azzoni
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
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Bigas A, Galán Palma L, Kartha GM, Giorgetti A. Using Pluripotent Stem Cells to Understand Normal and Leukemic Hematopoietic Development. Stem Cells Transl Med 2022; 11:1123-1134. [PMID: 36398586 PMCID: PMC9672852 DOI: 10.1093/stcltm/szac071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2022] [Accepted: 08/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Several decades have passed since the generation of the first embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines both in mice and in humans. Since then, stem cell biologists have tried to understand their potential biological and clinical uses for their implementation in regenerative medicine. The hematopoietic field was a pioneer in establishing the potential use for the development of blood cell products and clinical applications; however, early expectations have been truncated by the difficulty in generating bonafide hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Despite some progress in understanding the origin of HSCs during embryonic development, the reproduction of this process in vitro is still not possible, but the knowledge acquired in the embryo is slowly being implemented for mouse and human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). In contrast, ESC-derived hematopoietic cells may recapitulate some leukemic transformation processes when exposed to oncogenic drivers. This would be especially useful to model prenatal leukemia development or other leukemia-predisposing syndromes, which are difficult to study. In this review, we will review the state of the art of the use of PSCs as a model for hematopoietic and leukemia development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Bigas
- Program in Cancer Research, Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques (IMIM), CIBERONC, Barcelona, Spain
- Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute (IJC), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Luis Galán Palma
- Program in Cancer Research, Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques (IMIM), CIBERONC, Barcelona, Spain
- Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute (IJC), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Gayathri M Kartha
- Program in Cancer Research, Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques (IMIM), CIBERONC, Barcelona, Spain
- Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute (IJC), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Alessandra Giorgetti
- Regenerative Medicine Program, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Barcelona University, Barcelona, Spain
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Domingo-Reinés J, Martínez-Navajas G, Montes R, Lamolda M, Simón I, Castaño J, Ríos-Pelegrina R, Lopez-Hidalgo JL, García del Moral R, Marchal JA, Real PJ, Ramos-Mejía V. Generation of a H9 Clonal Cell Line With Inducible Expression of NUP98-KDM5A Fusion Gene in the AAVS1 Safe Harbor Locus. Front Cell Dev Biol 2022; 10:846092. [PMID: 35721502 PMCID: PMC9200071 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2022.846092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2021] [Accepted: 05/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a rare and heterogeneous disease that remains the major cause of mortality in children with leukemia. To improve the outcome of pediatric AML we need to gain knowledge on the biological bases of this disease. NUP98-KDM5A (NK5A) fusion protein is present in a particular subgroup of young pediatric patients with poor outcome. We report the generation and characterization of human Embryonic Stem Cell (hESC) clonal lines with inducible expression of NK5A. Temporal control of NK5A expression during hematopoietic differentiation from hESC will be critical for elucidating its participation during the leukemogenic process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joan Domingo-Reinés
- GENYO, Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Regional Government, Granada, Spain
| | - Gonzalo Martínez-Navajas
- GENYO, Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Regional Government, Granada, Spain
- Faculty of Science, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Rosa Montes
- GENYO, Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Regional Government, Granada, Spain
- Faculty of Sciences, Department of Cell Biology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Mar Lamolda
- GENYO, Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Regional Government, Granada, Spain
| | - Iris Simón
- GENYO, Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Regional Government, Granada, Spain
- Faculty of Science, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Julio Castaño
- Advanced Cell Therapy Service, Banc de Sang I Teixits, Edifici Dr. Frederic Duran I Jordà, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Rosa Ríos-Pelegrina
- Unidad de Anatomía Patológica, Hospital Universitario Clínico San Cecilio, Granada, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria Ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain
| | - Javier Luis Lopez-Hidalgo
- Unidad de Anatomía Patológica, Hospital Universitario Clínico San Cecilio, Granada, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria Ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain
| | - Raimundo García del Moral
- Unidad de Anatomía Patológica, Hospital Universitario Clínico San Cecilio, Granada, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria Ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain
| | - Juan A. Marchal
- Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria Ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain
- Biopathology and Regenerative Medicine Institute (IBIMER), Centre for Biomedical Research, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
- Faculty of Medicine, Department of Human Anatomy and Embryology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
- Excellence Research Unit “Modeling Nature” (MNat), University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Pedro J. Real
- GENYO, Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Regional Government, Granada, Spain
- Faculty of Science, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria Ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain
| | - Verónica Ramos-Mejía
- GENYO, Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Regional Government, Granada, Spain
- *Correspondence: Verónica Ramos-Mejía,
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Exome sequencing of glioblastoma-derived cancer stem cells reveals rare clinically relevant frameshift deletion in MLLT1 gene. Cancer Cell Int 2022; 22:9. [PMID: 34996478 PMCID: PMC8740446 DOI: 10.1186/s12935-021-02419-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2021] [Accepted: 12/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a heterogeneous CNS neoplasm which causes significant morbidity and mortality. One reason for the poor prognostic outcome of GBM is attributed to the presence of cancer stem cells (CSC) which confer resistance against standard chemo- and radiotherapeutics modalities. Two types of GBM-associated CSC were isolated from the same patient: tumor core- (c-CSC) and peritumor tissue-derived cancer stem cells (p-CSC). Our experiments are focused on glioblastoma–IDH-wild type, and no disease-defining alterations were present in histone, BRAF or other genes. Methods In the present study, potential differences in genetic variants between c-CSC versus p-CSC derived from four GBM patients were investigated with the aims of (1) comparing the exome sequences between all the c-CSC or p-CSC to identify the common variants; (2) identifying the variants affecting the function of genes known to be involved in cancer origin and development. Results By comparative analyses, we identified common gene single nucleotide variants (SNV) in all GBM c-CSC and p-CSC, a potentially deleterious variant was a frameshift deletion at Gln461fs in the MLLT1 gene, that was encountered only in p-CSC samples with different allelic frequency. Conclusions We discovered a potentially harmful frameshift deletion at Gln461fs in the MLLT1 gene. Further investigation is required to confirm the presence of the identified mutations in patient tissue samples, as well as the significance of the frameshift mutation in the MLLT1 gene on GBM biology and response to therapy based on genomic functional experiments. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-021-02419-4.
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Li Y, Magee JA. Transcriptional reprogramming in neonatal hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Exp Hematol 2021; 101-102:25-33. [PMID: 34303776 PMCID: PMC8557639 DOI: 10.1016/j.exphem.2021.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2021] [Revised: 07/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and lineage-committed hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) undergo profound shifts in gene expression during the neonatal and juvenile stages of life. Temporal changes in HSC/HPC gene expression underlie concomitant changes in self-renewal capacity, lineage biases, and hematopoietic output. Moreover, they can modify disease phenotypes. For example, childhood leukemias have distinct driver mutation profiles relative to adult leukemias, and they may arise from distinct cells of origin. The putative relationship between neonatal HSC/HPC ontogeny and childhood blood disorders highlights the importance of understanding how, at a mechanistic level, HSCs transition from fetal to adult transcriptional states. In this perspective piece, we summarize recent work indicating that the transition is uncoordinated and imprecisely timed. We discuss implications of these findings, including mechanisms that might enable neonatal HSCs and HPCs to acquire adultlike properties over a drawn-out period, in lieu of precise gene regulatory networks. The transition from fetal to adult transcriptional programs coincides with a pulse of type I interferon signaling that activates many genes associated with the adultlike state. This pulse may sensitize HSCs/HPCs to mutations that drive leukemogenesis shortly after birth. If we can understand how developmental switches modulate HSC and HPC fate after birth-both under normal circumstances and in the setting of disease-causing mutations-we can potentially reprogram these switches to treat or prevent childhood leukemias.
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Cazzola A, Cazzaniga G, Biondi A, Meneveri R, Brunelli S, Azzoni E. Prenatal Origin of Pediatric Leukemia: Lessons From Hematopoietic Development. Front Cell Dev Biol 2021; 8:618164. [PMID: 33511126 PMCID: PMC7835397 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2020.618164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Accepted: 12/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Several lines of evidence suggest that childhood leukemia, the most common cancer in young age, originates during in utero development. However, our knowledge of the cellular origin of this large and heterogeneous group of malignancies is still incomplete. The identification and characterization of their cell of origin is of crucial importance in order to define the processes that initiate and sustain disease progression, to refine faithful animal models and to identify novel therapeutic approaches. During embryogenesis, hematopoiesis takes place at different anatomical sites in sequential waves, and occurs in both a hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)-dependent and a HSC-independent fashion. Despite the recently described relevance and complexity of HSC-independent hematopoiesis, few studies have so far investigated its potential involvement in leukemogenesis. Here, we review the current knowledge on prenatal origin of leukemias in the context of recent insights in developmental hematopoiesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Cazzola
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Giovanni Cazzaniga
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.,Centro Ricerca Tettamanti, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Andrea Biondi
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.,Centro Ricerca Tettamanti, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.,Pediatrics, Fondazione MBBM/Ospedale San Gerardo, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Raffaella Meneveri
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Silvia Brunelli
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Emanuele Azzoni
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
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