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TEL2/ETV7 is highly homologous to the ETS transcription factor TEL/ETV6,a frequent target of chromosome translocation in human leukemia. Although both proteins are transcriptional inhibitors binding similar DNA recognition sequences,they have opposite biologic effects: TEL inhibits proliferation while TEL2 promotes it. In addition,forced expression of TEL2 but not TEL blocks vitamin D3-induced differentiation of U937 and HL60 myeloid cells. TEL2 is expressed in the hematopoietic system,and its expression is up-regulated in bone marrow samples of some patients with leukemia,suggesting a role in oncogenesis. Recently we also showed that TEL2 cooperates with Myc in B lymphomagenesis in mice. Here we show that forced expression of TEL2 alone in mouse bone marrow causes a myeloproliferative disease with a long latency period but with high penetrance. This suggested that secondary mutations are necessary for disease development. Treating mice receiving transplants with TEL2-expressing bone marrow with the chemical carcinogen N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) resulted in significantly accelerated disease onset. Although the mice developed a GFP-positive myeloid disease with 30% of the mice showing elevated white blood counts,they all died of T-cell lymphoma,which was GFP negative. Together our data identify TEL2 as a bona fide oncogene,but leukemic transformation is dependent on secondary mutations. View Publication

Mutations of MYH9,the gene for non-muscle myosin heavy chain IIA (NMMHC-IIA),cause a complex clinical phenotype characterized by macrothrombocytopenia and granulocyte inclusion bodies,often associated with deafness,cataracts and/or glomerulonephritis. The pathogenetic mechanisms of these defects are either completely unknown or controversial. In particular,it is a matter of debate whether haploinsufficiency or a dominant-negative effect of mutant allele is responsible for hematological abnormalities. We investigated 11 patients from six pedigrees with different MYH9 mutations. We evaluated NMMHC-IIA levels in platelets and granulocytes isolated from peripheral blood and in megakaryocytes (Mks) cultured from circulating progenitors. NMMHC-IIA distribution in Mks and granulocytes was also assessed. We demonstrated that all the investigated patients had a 50% reduction of NMMHC-IIA expression in platelets and that a similar defect was present also in Mks. In subjects with R1933X and E1945X mutations,the whole NMMHC-IIA of platelets and Mks was wild-type. No NMMHC-IIA inclusions were observed at any time of Mk maturation. In granulocytes,the extent of NMMHC-IIA reduction in patients with respect to control cells was significantly greater than that measured in platelets and Mks,and we found that wild-type protein was sequestered within most of the NMMHC-IIA inclusions. Altogether these results indicate that haploinsufficiency of NMMHC-IIA in megakaryocytic lineage is the mechanism of macrothrombocytopenia consequent to MYH9 mutations,whereas in granulocytes a dominant-negative effect of mutant allele is involved in the formation of inclusion bodies. The finding that the same mutations act through different mechanisms in different cells is surprising and requires further investigation. View Publication

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that patients with Bcr-Abl-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) either have primary disease that is refractory to imatinib mesylate or develop disease recurrence after an initial response. METHODS: The authors investigated the effects of a newly designed Bcr-Abl inhibitor,AMN107,by comparing its in vitro inhibitory potency on p190 Bcr-Abl ALL cell lines with that of imatinib. RESULTS: In two Philadelphia (Ph)-positive ALL cell lines,AMN107 was found to be 30-40 times more potent than imatinib in inhibiting cellular proliferation. AMN107 was also more effective than imatinib in inhibiting phosphorylation of p190 Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase in cell lines and primary ALL cells. The inhibition of cellular proliferation was associated with the induction of apoptosis in only one of the cell lines. No activity was observed in cell lines lacking the BCR-ABL genotype. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study suggest the superior potency of AMN107 compared with imatinib in Ph-positive ALL and support clinical trials of AMN107 in patients with Ph-positive ALL. View Publication

PURPOSE: The propensity of tumor cells to escape immune elimination could limit,if not defeat,the long-term benefits of effective immunotherapeutic protocols. Immunologic targeting of tumor stroma could significantly reduce the ability of tumors to evade immune elimination. Murine studies have shown that inducing immunity against angiogenesis-associated products engenders potent antitumor immunity without significant pathology. It is,however,not known whether T cells corresponding to stromal products are present in humans. In this study,we describe a method to screen for human stromal products that have not triggered significant tolerance and could therefore serve as candidate antigens for cancer immunotherapy. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: To identify candidates for human stromal antigens,we used an in vitro-screening method to determine whether dendritic cells transfected with mRNA encoding products,which are overexpressed in the tumor stroma,are capable of stimulating cytotoxic CD8(+) (CTL) responses from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. RESULTS: CTL responses could be consistently generated against fibroblast activation protein (FAP) but not against matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) or MMP-14. To enhance the immunogenicity of the mRNA-translated FAP product,a lysosomal targeting signal derived from lysosome-associated membrane protein-1 (LAMP-1) was fused to the COOH terminus of FAP to redirect the translated product into the class II presentation pathway. Dendritic cells transfected with mRNA encoding the FAP-LAMP fusion product stimulated enhanced CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell responses. CONCLUSION: This study identifies FAP,a protease preferentially expressed in tumor-associated fibroblasts,as a candidate human stromal antigen to target in the setting of cancer immunotherapy,and shows that differential expression of stromal products is not a sufficient criteria to indicate its immunogenicity in a vaccination setting. View Publication

Imatinib,a Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor,is a highly effective therapy for patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Despite durable responses in most chronic phase patients,relapses have been observed and are much more prevalent in patients with advanced disease. The most common mechanism of acquired imatinib resistance has been traced to Bcr-Abl kinase domain mutations with decreased imatinib sensitivity. Thus,alternate Bcr-Abl kinase inhibitors that have activity against imatinib-resistant mutants would be useful for patients who relapse on imatinib therapy. Two such Bcr-Abl inhibitors are currently being evaluated in clinical trials: the improved potency,selective Abl inhibitor AMN107 and the highly potent dual Src/Abl inhibitor BMS-354825. In the current article,we compared imatinib,AMN107,and BMS-354825 in cellular and biochemical assays against a panel of 16 kinase domain mutants representing textgreater90% of clinical isolates. We report that AMN107 and BMS-354825 are 20-fold and 325-fold more potent than imatinib against cells expressing wild-type Bcr-Abl and that similar improvements are maintained for all imatinib-resistant mutants tested,with the exception of T315I. Thus,both inhibitors hold promise for treating imatinib-refractory CML. View Publication

Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) is a cytosolic enzyme that is responsible for the oxidation of intracellular aldehydes. Elevated levels of ALDH have been demonstrated in murine and human progenitor cells compared with other hematopoietic cells,and this is thought to be important in chemoresistance. A method for the assessment of ALDH activity in viable cells recently has been developed and made commercially available in a kit format. In this study,we confirmed the use of the ALDH substrate kit to identify cord blood stem/progenitor cells. Via multicolor flow cytometry of cord blood ALDH+ cells,we have expanded on their phenotypic analysis. We then assessed the incidence,morphology,phenotype,and nonobese diabetic/ severe combined immunodeficiency engraftment ability of ALDH+ cells from acute myeloid leukemia (AML) samples. AML samples had no ALDH+ cells at all,an extremely rare nonmalignant stem/progenitor cell population,or a less rare,leukemic stem cell population. Hence,in addition to identifying nonmalignant stem cells within some AML samples,a high ALDH activity also identifies some patients' CD34+/ CD38- leukemic stem cells. The incidence of normal or leukemic stem cells with an extremely high ALDH activity may have important implications for resistance to chemotherapy. Identification and isolation of leukemic cells on the basis of ALDH activity provides a tool for their isolation and further analysis. View Publication

Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH),an iron overload disease associated with mutations in the HFE gene,is characterized by increased intestinal iron absorption and consequent deposition of excess iron,primarily in the liver. Patients with HH and Hfe-deficient (Hfe-/-) mice manifest inappropriate expression of the iron absorption regulator hepcidin,a peptide hormone produced by the liver in response to iron loading. In this study,we investigated the contribution of Hfe expression in macrophages to the regulation of liver hepcidin levels and iron loading. We used bone marrow transplantation to generate wild-type (wt) and Hfe-/- mice chimeric for macrophage Hfe gene expression. Reconstitution of Hfe-deficient mice with wt bone marrow resulted in augmented capacity of the spleen to store iron and in significantly decreased liver iron loading,accompanied by a significant increase of hepatic hepcidin mRNA levels. Conversely,wt mice reconstituted with Hfe-deficient bone marrow had a diminished capacity to store iron in the spleen but no significant alterations of liver iron stores or hepcidin mRNA levels. Our results suggest that macrophage Hfe participates in the regulation of splenic and liver iron concentrations and liver hepcidin expression. View Publication

The phosphatidylinositol 3' kinase (PI3K)/phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome ten/Akt pathway,which is a critical regulator of cell proliferation and survival,is mutated or activated in a wide variety of cancers. Akt appears to be a key central node in this pathway and thus is an attractive target for targeted molecular therapy. We demonstrated that Akt is highly phosphorylated in thyroid cancer cell lines and human thyroid cancer specimens,and hypothesised that KP372-1,an Akt inhibitor,would block signalling through the PI3K pathway and inhibit cell proliferation while inducing apoptosis of thyroid cancer cells. KP372-1 blocked signalling downstream of Akt in thyroid tumour cells,leading to inhibition of cell proliferation and increased apoptosis. As thyroid cancer consistently expresses phosphorylated Akt and KP372-1 effectively blocks Akt signalling,further preclinical evaluation of this compound for treatment of thyroid cancer is warranted. View Publication

DNA repair capacity of eukaryotic cells has been studied extensively in recent years. Mammalian cells have been engineered to overexpress recombinant nuclear DNA repair proteins from ectopic genes to assess the impact of increased DNA repair capacity on genome stability. This approach has been used in this study to specifically target O(6)-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) to the mitochondria and examine its impact on cell survival after exposure to DNA alkylating agents. Survival of human hematopoietic cell lines and primary hematopoietic CD34(+) committed progenitor cells was monitored because the baseline repair capacity for alkylation-induced DNA damage is typically low due to insufficient expression of MGMT. Increased DNA repair capacity was observed when K562 cells were transfected with nuclear-targeted MGMT (nucl-MGMT) or mitochondrial-targeted MGMT (mito-MGMT). Furthermore,overexpression of mito-MGMT provided greater resistance to cell killing by 1,3-bis (2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) than overexpression of nucl-MGMT. Simultaneous overexpression of mito-MGMT and nucl-MGMT did not enhance the resistance provided by mito-MGMT alone. Overexpression of either mito-MGMT or nucl-MGMT also conferred a similar level of resistance to methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) and temozolomide (TMZ) but simultaneous overexpression in both cellular compartments was neither additive nor synergistic. When human CD34(+) cells were infected with oncoretroviral vectors that targeted O(6)-benzylguanine (6BG)-resistant MGMT (MGMT(P140K)) to the nucleus or the mitochondria,committed progenitors derived from infected cells were resistant to 6BG/BCNU or 6BG/TMZ. These studies indicate that mitochondrial or nuclear targeting of MGMT protects hematopoietic cells against cell killing by BCNU,TMZ,and MMS,which is consistent with the possibility that mitochondrial DNA damage and nuclear DNA damage contribute equally to alkylating agent-induced cell killing during chemotherapy. View Publication

PURPOSE: The PRL-3 mRNA is consistently elevated in metastatic samples derived from colorectal cancers. We sought to generate a specific PRL-3 monoclonal antibody (mAb) that might serve as a potential diagnostic marker for colorectal cancer metastasis. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: PRL-3 is one of three members (PRL-1,PRL-2,and PRL-3) in a unique protein-tyrosine phosphatase family. Because the three PRLs are 76% to 87% identical in their amino acid sequences,it poses a great challenge to obtain mAbs that are specific for respective phosphatase of regenerating liver (PRL) but not for the other two in the family. We screened over 1,400 hybridoma clones to generate mAbs specific to each PRL member. RESULTS: We obtained two hybridoma clones specifically against PRL-3 and another two clones specifically against PRL-1. These antibodies had been evaluated by several critical tests to show their own specificities and applications. Most importantly,the PRL-3 mAbs were assessed on 282 human colorectal tissue samples (121 normal,17 adenomas,and 144 adenocarcinomas). PRL-3 protein was detected in 11% of adenocarcinoma samples. The PRL-3- and PRL-1-specific mAbs were further examined on 204 human multiple cancer tissues. The differential expressions of PRL-3 and PRL-1 confirmed the mAbs' specificity. CONCLUSIONS: Using several approaches,we show that PRL-3- or PRL-1-specific mAbs react only to their respective antigen. The expression of PRL-3 in textgreater10% of primary colorectal cancer samples indicates that PRL-3 may prime the metastatic process. These mAbs will be useful as markers in clinical diagnosis for assessing tumor aggressiveness. View Publication

The coding region determinant-binding protein/insulin-like growth factor II mRNA-binding protein (CRD-BP/IMP1) is an RNA-binding protein specifically recognizing c-myc,leader 3' IGF-II and tau mRNAs,and the H19 RNA. CRD-BP/IMP1 is predominantly expressed in embryonal tissues but is de novo activated and/or overexpressed in various human neoplasias. To address the question of whether CRD-BP/IMP1 expression characterizes certain cell types displaying distinct proliferation and/or differentiation properties (i.e. stem cells),we isolated cell subpopulations from human bone marrow,mobilized peripheral blood,and cord blood,all sources known to contain stem cells,and monitored for its expression. CRD-BP/IMP1 was detected only in cord blood-derived CD34(+) stem cells and not in any other cell type of either adult or cord blood origin. Adult BM CD34(+) cells cultured in the presence of 5'-azacytidine expressed de novo CRD-BP/IMP1,suggesting that epigenetic modifications may be responsible for its silencing in adult non-expressing cells. Furthermore,by applying the short interfering RNA methodology in MCF-7 cells,we observed,subsequent to knocking down CRD-BP/IMP1,decreased c-myc expression,increased IGF-II mRNA levels,and reduced cell proliferation rates. These data 1) suggest a normal role for CRD-BP/IMP1 in pluripotent stem cells with high renewal capacity,like the CB CD34(+) cells,2) indicate that altered methylation may directly or indirectly affect its expression in adult cells,3) imply that its de novo activation in cancer cells may affect the expression of c-Myc and insulin-like growth factor II,and 4) indicate that the inhibition of CRD-BP/IMP1 expression might affect cancer cell proliferation. View Publication

PTPN11 encodes the protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP-2,which relays signals from growth factor receptors to Ras and other effectors. Germline PTPN11 mutations underlie about 50% of Noonan syndrome (NS),a developmental disorder that is associated with an elevated risk of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML). Somatic PTPN11 mutations were recently identified in about 35% of patients with JMML; these mutations introduce amino acid substitutions that are largely distinct from those found in NS. We assessed the functional consequences of leukemia-associated PTPN11 mutations in murine hematopoietic cells. Expressing an E76K SHP-2 protein induced a hypersensitive pattern of granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming unit (CFU-GM) colony growth in response to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin 3 (IL-3) that was dependent on SHP-2 catalytic activity. E76K SHP-2 expression also enhanced the growth of immature progenitor cells with high replating potential,perturbed erythroid growth,and impaired normal differentiation in liquid cultures. In addition,leukemia-associated SHP-2 mutations conferred a stronger phenotype than a germline mutation found in patients with NS. Mutant SHP-2 proteins induce aberrant growth in multiple hematopoietic compartments,which supports a primary role of hyperactive Ras in the pathogenesis of JMML. View Publication