ABSTRACT
We utilized a mouse model of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) to investigate how aberrant activation of cytokine signaling pathways interacts with chimeric transcription factors to generate acute myeloid leukemia. Expression in mice of the APL-associated fusion, PML-RARA, initially has only modest effects on myelopoiesis. Whereas treatment of control animals with interleukin-3 (IL-3) resulted in expanded myelopoiesis without a block in differentiation, PML-RARA abrogated differentiation that normally characterizes the response to IL-3. Retroviral transduction of bone marrow with an IL-3-expressing retrovirus revealed that IL-3 and promyelocytic leukemia-retinoic acid receptor alpha (PML-RARα) combined to generate a lethal leukemia-like syndrome in <21 days. We also observed that a constitutively activated mutant IL-3 receptor, βcV449E, cooperated with PML-RARα in leukemogenesis, whereas a different activated mutant, βcI374N, did not. Analysis of additional mutations introduced into βcV449E showed that, although tyrosine phosphorylation of βc is necessary for cooperation, the Src homology 2 domain-containing transforming protein binding site is dispensable. Our results indicate that chimeric transcription factors can block the differentiative effects of growth factors. This combination can be potently leukemogenic, but the particular manner in which these types of mutations interact determines the ability of such combinations to generate acute myeloid leukemia.
Characteristics and outcome of acute myeloid leukemia with uncommon retinoic acid receptor-alpha (RARA) fusion variants
