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.
Project description:In order to investigate how transcription factor dose impacts B-lymphocyte development, we generated mice carrying transheterozygous mutations in the Pax5 and Ebf1 genes. While combined reduction of Pax5 and Ebf1 dose had minimal impact on the development of the earliest CD19+ progenitors, these cells displayed an increased T-cell potential in vivo and in vitro. Alteration in lineage fate depended on a Notch1 mediated conversion process while no signs of de-differentiation could be detected. The differences in functional response to Notch signaling in Wt and Pax5+/-Ebf1+/- pro-B cells was reflected in the transcriptional response because even though cells of both genotypes responded by the generation of intracellular Notch1 and activation of a set of target genes, only the Pax5+/-Ebf1+/- pro-B cells down-regulated genes central for the preservation of stable B-cell identity. This report stresses the importance of transcription factor dose in lymphocyte development and suggests that Pax5 and Ebf1 collaborate to modulate the transcriptional response to Notch signaling after the generation of activated intracellular Notch1. This provides an insight to how transcription factors like Ebf1 and Pax5 preserve cellular identity during differentiation. EBF-1 ChIP-seq: Cultivated CD43+IgM- cells (ProB) cells from Wt, EBF-1 +/-, PAX-5 +/- and EBF-1 +/- PAX-5 +/- (TH) were assessed for EBF-1 binding by ChIP-seq. Replicate Ebf1 ChIP-seq runs on each genotype (Wt, TH, Ebf1+/- and Pax5+/-) and corresponding inputs were pooled into one dataset and analyzed as one combined sample per genotype. RNA-seq no treatment: Briefly, ProB-cells from C57BL/6J Ebf1+/-Pax5+/- (n=4), WT (n=4), Ebf1+/- (n=2) and Pax5+/- (n=2) were sorted and RNA extracted with Qiagen RNeasy Micro Kit. RNA was sent to UCLA Microarray Core for library preparation and were subsequently for 50 cycles of HiSeq 2000 SBS sequencing generating 20-30 million reads/sample. Data analysis was performed with Arraystar® (DNASTAR)). RNA-seq 1 day on OP9DL1 and OP9: In short, in vitro expanded ProB-cells from C57BL/6J Ebf1+/-Pax5+/- (n=4) and WT (n=4) were exposed either on OP9 or OP9-DL1 stromal cells for 24 hours and RNA extracted with Qiagen RNeasy Micro Kit. Due to low reads, two Wt and Ebf1+/-Pax5+/- were sequenced twice. Libraries were constructed using Nugen's Ovation Ultralow Library systems and were subsequently for 50 cycles of NextSeq500 sequencing generating 20-30 million reads/sample. Data analysis was performed with Arraystar® (DNASTAR)).
Project description:Pax5 controls B-cell commitment, development and immunity by repressing B-lineage-inappropriate genes and activating B-cell-specific genes. In addition to the N-terminal DNA-binding paired domain, Pax5 contains a conserved octapeptide, partial homeodomain and C-terminal sequences with transactivating and inhibitory potential. To understand how the C-terminal domains of Pax5 contribute to the repression and activation function of Pax5, we performed Pax5 pulldown combined with mass spectrometry to identify coactivator or corepressor complexes that bind to the C-terminal regions of Pax5.
Project description:While PAX5 is an important tumor suppressor in B-ALL, it is also involved in oncogenic translocations coding for PAX5 fusion proteins. PAX5-JAK2 encodes a protein consisting of the PAX5 DNA-binding region fused to the constitutively active JAK2 kinase domain. Here, we studied the oncogenic function of PAX5-JAK2 in a mouse model expressing it from the endogenous Pax5 locus. The Pax5Jak2/+ mice rapidly developed an aggressive B-ALL in the absence of another cooperating mutation. The DNA-binding function and kinase activity of Pax5-Jak2, as well as IL-7 signaling, all contributed to leukemia development. Interestingly, all Pax5Jak2/+ tumors lost the wild-type Pax5 allele, allowing efficient DNA binding of Pax5-Jak2. While we could not find evidence for a nuclear role of Pax5-Jak2 as an epigenetic regulator, active phosphorylated Stat5 was present at a high level in Pax5Jak2/+ B-ALL tumors, consistent with increased expression of Stat5 target genes. Together, these data identified Pax5-Jak2 as an important nuclear driver of leukemia formation by maintaining phosphorylated Stat5 levels in the nucleus.
Project description:Heterochromatin has a high density of DNA and low rates of gene transcription.H3k9me3 is a conserved histone modification, and is best known for its role in constitutive heterochromatin formation.H1155, which is a neuroendocrine large cell lung cancer cell line, has a dense nucleus and a high level of occupancy of H3K9me3. PAX5 is a neurogenesis and B lymphocyte development transcription factor, and endogenous expressed in neuroendocrine carcinoma, including H1155 cell line. To assess whether PAX5 promotes heterochromatin formation in H1155, we knock out PAX5 in H1155 cell (KO-PAX5) by CRISPR/Cas9 and use H3K9me3 to performed ChIP-seq.
Project description:The transcription factor Pax5 is essential for B cell commitment in the mouse, where it represses lineage-inappropriate gene expression, while simultaneously activating the B cell gene expression program. We have performed a global gene expression screen of wild type and Pax5-deficient pro-B cells in an attempt to identify the crucial Pax5 targets in early B-lymphopoiesis. We have also included Rag1-/- and wild type (+/+) proB cells starved of the cytokine IL-7 for 4 hours as controls. Rag1-/- proB cells are incapable of further differentiation due to an absence of immunoglobulin recombination and IL-7 is the major cytokine regulating proB cell growth. Keywords: comparison of genetically modified cell-lines
Project description:PAX5-KIDINS220 (PAX5-K220) is a novel chimeric fusion gene identified in a pediatric Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patient, but the function of the encoded fusion protein has not yet been analyzed.We successfully generated PAX5-K220 expressing cells and demonstrate that PAX5-K220 is a nuclear protein. In addition, PAX5-K220 activates JAK2-STAT5 pathway through the repression of Socs5, a known negative regulator of JAK-STAT pathway. However, although identified in Ph-like ALL, PAX5-K220 does not induce IL-3-independent proliferation when transduced in the IL-3-dependent Ba/F3 murine leukemia cells, but rather attenuates growth. Luciferase reporter assay reveals that PAX5-K220 inhibits wild type PAX5 transcriptional activity in a dominant-negative fashion like other PAX5-related fusion proteins, and may contribute to lymphocyte differentiation block. These results reveal that PAX5-K220 certainly shares the character with other PAX5-related fusion proteins rather than other fusion proteins with tyrosine kinase activity identified in Ph-like ALL, and did not contribute to proliferation activity.