Jak2: A Potential Therapeutic Target for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML).

In most CML patients Bcr-Abl, a constitutively active tyrosine kinase derived from the Philadelphia chromosome, is highly expressed and is the causative factor in most CML patients. Imatinib mesylate, an inhibitor of the Bcr-Abl kinase, is a very effective drug for treatment of CML. However in some CML patients, drug resistance develops and the patients relapse. Thus, alternative drug targets need to be identified. We have shown that Bcr-Abl activates its downstream target, the Jak2 tyrosine kinase, leading to the enhancement of c-Myc expression (Xie et al. Oncogene21: 7137, 2002; Samanta et al. Cancer Res.66: 6468, 2006). Our recent studies showed that Bcr-Abl activated the transcriptional factor NF-kB through Jak2, which in turn activated c-Myc transcription. Jak2 also activated Akt, which increased c-Myc protein levels by inhibiting GSK3. Addition of AG490, an inhibitor of the Jak2 kinase, prevented enhanced expression of c-Myc and caused induction of apoptosis in BCR-ABL+ leukemia cells. Immunoprecipitation experiments showed that Bcr-Abl is associated with a cluster of signaling proteins including Jak2, Gab2, Akt and GSK3b. Treatment of CML cell lines and mouse BCR-ABL+ 32D cells (myeloid lineage) with the either Jak2 siRNA or the Jak2 kinase inhibitor AG490 caused inhibition of pTyr Gab2 formation, pSer Akt formation and the activation of NFkB. Of interest, treatment of BCR-ABL+ 32 D cells with IL-3 reversed the apoptotic effects of imatinib by activation of Jak2 even though Bcr-Abl was inhibited. Importantly, mouse BaF3 hematopoietic cells expressing the T315I and E255K imatinib-resistant mutants of BCR-ABL underwent apoptosis upon exposure to either the Jak2 inhibitor AG490 or siRNA for Jak2, yet were resistant to imatinib. Cells from a number of CML patients (including six chronic phase, one accelerated phase, and two blast crisis patients who failed imatinib treatment) were induced to enter apoptosis upon treatment with AG490, whereas normal samples were not affected by AG490. Further analysis of imatinib resistant Bcr-Abl cell lines showed that transfection of the cells with Jak2 specific siRNA or by treating the cells with AG490 reduced levels of pLyn, pAkt, c-Myc and pGSK3 level compared to untreated cells. Transfection of Lyn specific siRNA into K562 and 32Dp210 cells resulted in down-regulation of pGab2, pAkt, pGsk3 and c-Myc, but did not alter pJak2 levels; this result indicates that pLyn is downstream of Jak2 but upstream of Gab2, pAkt, pGSK3 in BCR-ABL+ leukemia cells. We hypothesize that Jak2 activation of Lyn tyrosine kinase in BCR-ABL+ leukemia cells leads to tyrosine phosphorylation of the YxxM motif of Gab2, which activates the PI-3 kinase-Akt pathway. In conclusion, since inactivation of Jak2 inhibits many of the critical oncogenic targets of Bcr-Abl (resulting in apoptosis induction), we propose that Jak2 is a potential therapeutic target for CML, in both imatinib sensitive and imatinib resistant patients.