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Loss of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 function causes asparaginase resistance in T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia through decreased WNT pathway activity

Lefeivre, T.; Tudose, C.; Grosu, T.-I.; Jones, L.; Leon, T.; Wynne, K.; Oliviero, G.; Smith, O.; Trinquand, A.; Mansour, M.; Ryan, C.; Bond, J.

2023-08-06 cancer biology
10.1101/2023.08.04.552014 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Loss-of-function mutations and deletions in core components of the epigenetic Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) are associated with poor prognosis and treatment resistance in T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). We leveraged clinical mutational and transcriptional data to identify a functional link between PRC2 alterations and changes in WNT signaling pathway activity in leukemia cells. Computational integration of transcriptomic, proteomic and phosphoproteomic data from an isogenic T-ALL cellular model revealed reduced activity of the WNT-dependent stabilization of proteins (WNT/STOP) pathway in cells lacking core PRC2 factor EZH2. We discovered that PRC2 loss significantly reduced sensitivity to key T-ALL treatment asparaginase, and that this was mechanistically linked to increased cellular ubiquitination levels that bolstered leukemia cell asparagine reserves. We further found that asparaginase resistance in PRC2-depleted leukemic blasts could be mitigated by pharmaceutical proteasome inhibition, thereby providing a novel and clinically tractable means to tackle induction treatment failure in high-risk T-ALL.

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