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Pax5 is a tumor suppressor in mouse mutagenesis models of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

ABSTRACT: To examine the role of PAX5 alterations in leukemogenesis, we performed mutagenesis screens of mice heterozygous for a loss-of-function Pax5 allele. Both chemical and retroviral mutagenesis resulted in a significantly increased penetrance and reduced latency of leukemia, with a shift to B-lymphoid lineage. We observed a range of maturation of lymphoid tumors, and genomic profiling identified a high frequency of secondary genomic mutations, deletions and retroviral insertions targeting B-lymphoid development, including Pax5, and additional genes and pathways known to be mutated in ALL, including tumor suppressors, Ras and JAK-STAT signaling. These results support the notion that loss-of-function of PAX5 is a central event in leukemogenesis and contributes to the arrest in lymphoid maturation characteristic of this disease. Moreover, we validate the role of mutations in additional pathways and demonstrate that sequential acquisition of genetic alterations is required for establishment of leukemia.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE67611 | GEO | 2015/04/10

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA280461

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:PAX5, one of nine members of the mammalian paired box (PAX) family of transcription factors, plays an important role in B cell development. Approximately one-third of individuals with pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) acquire heterozygous inactivating mutations of PAX5 in malignant cells, and heterozygous germline loss-offunction PAX5 mutations cause autosomal dominant predisposition to ALL. At least in mice, Pax5 is required for pre-B cell maturation, and leukemic remission occurs when Pax5 expression is restored in a Pax5-deficient mouse model of ALL. Together, these observations indicate that PAX5 deficiency reversibly drives leukemogenesis. PAX5 and its two most closely related paralogs, PAX2 and PAX8, which are not mutated in ALL, exhibit overlapping expression and function redundantly during embryonic development. However, PAX5 alone is expressed in lymphocytes, while PAX2 and PAX8 are predominantly specific to kidney and thyroid, respectively. We show that forced expression of PAX2 or PAX8 complements PAX5 loss-of-function mutation in ALL cells as determined by modulation of PAX5 target genes, restoration of immunophenotypic and morphological differentiation, and, ultimately, reduction of replicative potential. Activation of PAX5 paralogs, PAX2 or PAX8, ordinarily silenced in lymphocytes, may therefore represent a novel approach for treating PAX5-deficient ALL. In pursuit of this strategy, we took advantage of the fact that, in kidney, PAX2 is upregulated by extracellular hyperosmolarity. We found that hyperosmolarity, at potentially clinically achievable levels, transcriptionally activates endogenous PAX2 in ALL cells via a mechanism dependent on NFAT5, a transcription factor coordinating response to hyperosmolarity. We also found that hyperosmolarity upregulates residual wild type PAX5 expression in ALL cells and modulates gene expression, including in PAX5-mutant primary ALL cells. These findings specifically demonstrate that osmosensing pathways may represent a new therapeutic target for ALL and more broadly point toward the possibility of using gene paralogs to rescue mutations driving cancer and other diseases.

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Pax5 is a tumor suppressor in mouse mutagenesis models of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

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