Project description:Heme is an erythrocyte-derived toxin that drives disease progression in hemolytic anemias. During hemolysis, specialized bone marrow-derived macrophages with a high heme-metabolism capacity orchestrate disease adaptation by removing damaged erythrocytes and heme-protein complexes from the blood and supporting iron recycling for erythropoiesis. Here, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing with RNA velocity analysis of GM-CSF-supplemented mouse bone marrow cultures to assess myeloid differentiation under heme stress. We found that heme-activated NRF2 signaling shifted the differentiation trajectories of cells towards antioxidant, iron-recycling macrophages at the expense of dendritic cells, as these cells were selectively deficient in heme-exposed bone marrow cultures. Heme eliminated the capacity of GM-CSF-supplemented bone marrow cultures to activate antigen-specific T cells. The generation of functionally competent dendritic cells was restored by NRF2 loss. The heme-induced phenotype was reproduced in hemolytic mice with sickle cell disease and spherocytosis and associated with reduced dendritic cell functions in the spleen. Our data provide a novel mechanistic underpinning how hemolytic stress may provoke hyposplenism-related secondary immunodeficiency, which is a critical determinant of mortality in patients with genetic hemolytic anemias.
Project description:Heme is an erythrocyte-derived toxin that drives disease progression in hemolytic anemias. During hemolysis, specialized bone marrow-derived macrophages with a high heme-metabolism capacity orchestrate disease adaptation by removing damaged erythrocytes and heme-protein complexes from the blood and supporting iron recycling for erythropoiesis. Here, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing with RNA velocity analysis of GM-CSF-supplemented mouse bone marrow cultures to assess myeloid differentiation under heme stress. We found that heme-activated NRF2 signaling shifted the differentiation trajectories of cells towards antioxidant, iron-recycling macrophages at the expense of dendritic cells, as these cells were selectively deficient in heme-exposed bone marrow cultures. Heme eliminated the capacity of GM-CSF-supplemented bone marrow cultures to activate antigen-specific T cells. The generation of functionally competent dendritic cells was restored by NRF2 loss. The heme-induced phenotype was reproduced in hemolytic mice with sickle cell disease and spherocytosis and associated with reduced dendritic cell functions in the spleen. Our data provide a novel mechanistic underpinning how hemolytic stress may provoke hyposplenism-related secondary immunodeficiency, which is a critical determinant of mortality in patients with genetic hemolytic anemias.
Project description:Heme is an erythrocyte-derived toxin that drives disease progression in hemolytic anemias. During hemolysis, specialized bone marrow-derived macrophages with a high heme-metabolism capacity orchestrate disease adaptation by removing damaged erythrocytes and heme-protein complexes from the blood and supporting iron recycling for erythropoiesis. Here, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing with RNA velocity analysis of GM-CSF-supplemented mouse bone marrow cultures to assess myeloid differentiation under heme stress. We found that heme-activated NRF2 signaling shifted the differentiation trajectories of cells towards antioxidant, iron-recycling macrophages at the expense of dendritic cells, as these cells were selectively deficient in heme-exposed bone marrow cultures. Heme eliminated the capacity of GM-CSF-supplemented bone marrow cultures to activate antigen-specific T cells. The generation of functionally competent dendritic cells was restored by NRF2 loss. The heme-induced phenotype was reproduced in hemolytic mice with sickle cell disease and spherocytosis and associated with reduced dendritic cell functions in the spleen. Our data provide a novel mechanistic underpinning how hemolytic stress may provoke hyposplenism-related secondary immunodeficiency, which is a critical determinant of mortality in patients with genetic hemolytic anemias.
Project description:The ubiquitous metabolite heme has diverse enzymatic and signaling functions in most mammalian cells. Through integrated analyses of mouse models, human cell lines and primary patient samples, we identify de novo heme biosynthesis as a selective dependency in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The dependency is underpinned by a propensity of AML cells, and especially leukemic stem cells (LSCs), to downregulate heme biosynthesis enzymes (HBEs) which promotes their self-renewal. Inhibition of HBEs causes collapse of mitochondrial Complex IV (CIV) and dysregulates the copper-chaperone system inducing cuproptosis, a form of programmed cell death brought about by the oligomerization of lipoylated proteins by copper. Moreover, we identify pathways that are synthetic lethal with heme biosynthesis, including glycolysis, which can be leveraged for combination strategies. Altogether, our work uncovers a heme rheostat that controls gene expression and drug sensitivity in AML and implicates HBE inhibition as a novel cuproptosis trigger.
Project description:Heme is an erythrocyte-derived toxin that drives disease progression in hemolytic anemias. During hemolysis, specialized bone marrow-derived macrophages with a high heme-metabolism capacity orchestrate disease adaptation by removing damaged erythrocytes and heme-protein complexes from the blood and supporting iron recycling for erythropoiesis. Here, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing with RNA velocity analysis of GM-CSF-supplemented mouse bone marrow cultures to assess myeloid differentiation under heme stress. We found that heme-activated NRF2 signaling shifted the differentiation trajectories of cells towards antioxidant, iron-recycling macrophages at the expense of dendritic cells, as these cells were selectively deficient in heme-exposed bone marrow cultures. Heme eliminated the capacity of GM-CSF-supplemented bone marrow cultures to activate antigen-specific T cells. The generation of functionally competent dendritic cells was restored by NRF2 loss. The heme-induced phenotype was reproduced in hemolytic mice with sickle cell disease and spherocytosis and associated with reduced dendritic cell functions in the spleen. Our data provide a novel mechanistic underpinning how hemolytic stress may provoke hyposplenism-related secondary immunodeficiency, which is a critical determinant of mortality in patients with genetic hemolytic anemias.
Project description:Novel SCD inhibitor SSI-4 demonstrated good toxicity profile in experimental animals and induced cell toxicity across multiple acute myeloid leukemia models. Therefore, we treated sensitive AML cell line MV-4-11 with SSI-4 (1 µM) for 24h with or without the addition of sodium oleate (1 µM) that rescues toxicity phenotype.
Project description:The ubiquitous metabolite heme has diverse enzymatic and signaling functions in most mammalian cells. Through integrated analyses of mouse models, human cell lines and primary patient samples, we identify de novo heme biosynthesis as a selective dependency in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The dependency is underpinned by a propensity of AML cells, and especially leukemic stem cells (LSCs), to downregulate heme biosynthesis enzymes (HBEs) which promotes their self-renewal. Inhibition of HBEs causes collapse of mitochondrial Complex IV (CIV) and dysregulates the copper-chaperone system inducing cuproptosis, a form of programmed cell death brought about by the oligomerization of lipoylated proteins by copper. Moreover, we identify pathways that are synthetic lethal with heme biosynthesis, including glycolysis, which can be leveraged for combination strategies. Altogether, our work uncovers a heme rheostat that controls gene expression and drug sensitivity in AML and implicates HBE inhibition as a novel cuproptosis trigger.
Project description:Heme is an erythrocyte-derived toxin that drives disease progression in hemolytic anemias. During hemolysis, specialized bone marrow-derived macrophages with a high heme-metabolism capacity orchestrate disease adaptation by removing damaged erythrocytes and heme-protein complexes from the blood and supporting iron recycling for erythropoiesis. Here, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing with RNA velocity analysis of GM-CSF-supplemented mouse bone marrow cultures to assess myeloid differentiation under heme stress. We found that heme-activated NRF2 signaling shifted the differentiation trajectories of cells towards antioxidant, iron-recycling macrophages at the expense of dendritic cells, as these cells were selectively deficient in heme-exposed bone marrow cultures. Heme eliminated the capacity of GM-CSF-supplemented bone marrow cultures to activate antigen-specific T cells. The generation of functionally competent dendritic cells was restored by NRF2 loss. The heme-induced phenotype was reproduced in hemolytic mice with sickle cell disease and spherocytosis and associated with reduced dendritic cell functions in the spleen. Our data provide a novel mechanistic underpinning how hemolytic stress may provoke hyposplenism-related secondary immunodeficiency, which is a critical determinant of mortality in patients with genetic hemolytic anemias.