CRKL but not CRKII Inhibits Erythropoiesis and Megakaryopoiesis of CML via Inactivating Raf/MEK/ERK/Elk-1 Pathway

Abstract Background: As members of the CT10 regulation of kinase (CRK) adaptor protein family, CRK-like (CRKL) and CRKII are involved in cell proliferation, survival, adhesion, migration and differentiation. However, the exact role and underlying mechanism of CRKL and CRKII in leukemic cell differentiation are still unknown. Methods: Quantitative real-time qPCR (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression levels of CRKL and CRKII in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients and complete remission (CR) patients; Western blotting (WB) was used to measure the expression levels of CRKL and CRKII during hemin-induced erythroid differentiation of K562 cells; Benzidine staining, isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) proteomic analysis, cDNA microarray assay, qRT-PCR and WB were used to examine the effects of CRKL and CRKII deregulation on erythroid and megakaryocyte differentiation of K562 cells; PD98059 was used to investigate the underlying mechanism of CRKL in erythropoiesis and megakaryopoiesis. Results: CRKL was found to be overexpressed in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients compared with normal samples, while its expression level was lower in CR patients than in corresponding CML patients. The CRKL expression level was significantly decreased during the erythroid differentiation of K562 cells following hemin treatment. Moreover, CRKL downregulation promoted erythroid and megakaryocyte differentiation of K562 cells accompanied by increased expression level of the erythroid differentiation markers γ-globin, glycophorin (GPA) and the megakaryocyte differentiation markers CD41, CD61. Furthermore, gene microarray and iTRAQ quantitative proteomic analysis showed that CRKL downregulation increased hemoglobin (HB) molecules HBD, HBA1, HBA2, HBZ, HBE1, HBG1 and globin transcription factor 1 (GATA1), high-mobility group protein (HMGB2) expression levels. Mechanistically, CRKL inhibited erythroid and megakaryocyte differentiation of K562 cell via inactivating Raf/MEK/ERK/Elk-1 pathway. Conversely, CRKII was only slightly overexpressed in CML patients and had no effect on erythroid differentiation of K562 cells. Conclusions: Taken together, our results demonstrate that CRKL but not CRKII contributes to development, progression, erythropoiesis and megakaryopoiesis of CML, providing novel insights into effective diagnosis and therapy for CML patients.

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FLT3 Is Up-Regulated in Blast Crisis of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and Combination of Small Interference RNA of FLT3 and Gleevec (STI571) Synergistically Induces the Apoptosis in K562 Cells.

Blood ◽

10.1182/blood.v110.11.4532.4532 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 110 (11) ◽

pp. 4532-4532

Author(s):

Young Y. Lee ◽

Kwang-Sung Ahn ◽

Sung-Soo Yoon ◽

Jung H. Choi ◽

Byoung B. Park ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Blast Crisis ◽

Chronic Phase ◽

K562 Cells ◽

Pcr Analysis ◽

Wild Type ◽

Small Interference Rna ◽

Expression Levels ◽

Significant Difference

Abstract To identify a gene signature for prognostic markers at transition from chronic phase to blast crisis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), we have applied Affymetrix Genechips of 22,000 transcripts to analyze total RNA of CML cells from 12 patients with chronic phase and 12 patients with blast crisis. Data analysis using GeneSpring 6.0 generated a list of 143 differentially expressed genes. A total of 89 genes were up-regulated and 54 genes were down-regulated in blast crisis of CML, and vice versa in chronic phase of CML. Array data for 32 genes was validated using quantitative realtime PCR analysis. The expression levels of HSA6591, FLT3, NTE5, RSG1, LAF4, CPA3, ATF, FCGR3A, MYD88, IFIT1, TP73L, DTNA, MDA, and IL18R1 showed statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between chronic phase and blast crisis. Since CML cells of blast crisis were generally unresponsive to STI571, we further analyzed roles of FLT3 which is known to be a poor prognositic marker in acute myeloid leukemia. For this experiment, K562 cells (CML blast cells) were transfected with small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs), also referred to as small interfering RNAs, to target human FLT3, resulting in the significant inhibition of FLT3 expression at mRNA and protein levels. MTT assay demonstrated that FLT3 knockdown K562 cells by shRNAs were more sensitive to STI571 compared to wild type of K562, although there was no difference at high concentration of STI571 (320 nM) between FLT3 knockdown K562 cells and wild type of K562 cells. The higher expression levels of apoptosis related genes (PARP, caspase-3, Bax) were observed in FLT3 knockdown K562 cells compared to wild type of K562 cells. Thus, RNA interference-directed targeting of FLT3 might be a novel treatment modality in STI571 refractory CML patients.

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Nobiletin Promotes Megakaryocytic Differentiation through the MAPK/ERK-Dependent EGR1 Expression and Exerts Anti-Leukemic Effects in Human Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) K562 Cells

Cells ◽

10.3390/cells9040877 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 877 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jui-Hung Yen ◽

Ching-Yen Lin ◽

Chin-Hsien Chuang ◽

Hsien-Kuo Chin ◽

Ming-Jiuan Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cell Differentiation ◽

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Messenger Rna ◽

Myeloid Leukemia ◽

K562 Cells ◽

Cell Cycle Regulators ◽

Differentiation Therapy ◽

Differentiation Markers ◽

Small Interference Rna ◽

Megakaryocytic Differentiation

Differentiation therapy is an alternative strategy used to induce the differentiation of blast cells toward mature cells and to inhibit tumor cell proliferation for cancer treatment. Nobiletin (NOB), a polymethoxyflavone phytochemical, is present abundantly in citrus peels and has been reported to possess anti-cancer activity. In this study, we investigated the anti-leukemic effects of NOB on cell differentiation and its underlying mechanisms in human chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) K562 cells. NOB (100 μM) treatment for 24 and 48 h significantly decreased viability of K562 cells to 54.4 ± 5.3% and 46.2 ± 9.9%, respectively. NOB (10–100 μM) significantly inhibited cell growth in K562 cells. Flow cytometry analysis and immunoblotting data showed that NOB (40 and 80 μM) could modulate the cell cycle regulators including p21, p27, and cyclin D2, and induce G1 phase arrest. NOB also increased the messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression of megakaryocytic differentiation markers, such as CD61, CD41, and CD42 as well as the formation of large cells with multi-lobulated nuclei in K562 cells. These results suggested that NOB facilitated K562 cells toward megakaryocytic differentiation. Furthermore, microarray analysis showed that expression of EGR1, a gene associated with promotion of megakaryocytic differentiation, was markedly elevated in NOB-treated K562 cells. The knockdown of EGR1 expression by small interference RNA (siRNA) could significantly attenuate NOB-mediated cell differentiation. We further elucidated that NOB induced EGR1 expression and CD61 expression through increases in MAPK/ERK phosphorylation in K562 cells. These results indicate that NOB promotes megakaryocytic differentiation through the MAPK/ERK pathway-dependent EGR1 expression in human CML cells. In addition, NOB when combined with imatinib could synergistically reduce the viability of K562 cells. Our findings suggest that NOB may serve as a beneficial anti-leukemic agent for differentiation therapy.

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Identification of AHI-1 Involvement in Mediating Cellular Resistance to Imatinib Mesylate in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Cells

Blood ◽

10.1182/blood.v112.11.3201.3201 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 112 (11) ◽

pp. 3201-3201

Author(s):

Donna DeGeer ◽

Leon Zhou ◽

Min Chen ◽

Yun Zhao ◽

Ali G Turhan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Protein Expression ◽

Cell Line ◽

Myeloid Leukemia ◽

K562 Cells ◽

K562 Cell Line ◽

Cellular Resistance ◽

Expression Levels ◽

Total Protein Expression

Abstract Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal multilineage myeloproliferative disorder arising from the neoplastic transformation of a pluripotent hematopoietic stem cell that acquires a unique BCR-ABL fusion gene. The BCR-ABL oncoprotein displays constitutively elevated tyrosine kinase activity that deregulates cellular proliferation and apoptosis control through effects on several common signal transduction cascades, including the PI3K/AKT, JAK2/STAT5, and NF-kB pathways. The current first line treatment for CML involves administration of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib mesylate (IM) that has shown promise in treating chronic phase CML patients. However, early relapses and IM-resistant disease have emerged and are frequently associated with mutations in the BCR-ABL kinase domain that affect inhibitor binding. AHI-1 (Abelson helper integration site 1) is a recently discovered oncogene that has been demonstrated to be highly deregulated in a CML cell line (K562) and in primary leukemic stem/progenitor cells from CML patients. AHI-1 contains several unique domains that are indicative of signalling functions, including both an SH3 and a WD40-repeat domain. We have recently demonstrated that overexpression of murine Ahi-1 is able to transform IL-3 dependent Baf3, resulting in cells able to grow in the absence of growth factors. When these transduced cells were injected into sublethally irradiated NOD/SCID immunodeficient mice, the mice developed leukemia, demonstrating the oncogenic properties of Ahi-1. Interestingly, these in vitro and in vivo effects can be enhanced by co-transduction of BCR-ABL in these cells. In addition, a direct interaction between AHI-1 and BCR-ABL at endogenous levels was identified in K562 cells and this protein interaction complex further mediated IM response/resistance in CML stem/progenitor cells. To further investigate AHI-1’s involvement in mediating this cellular resistance to IM, AHI-1 was either stably overexpressed in K562 cells by transduction of EF1a-AHI-1-IRES-YFP lentivirus or was suppressed in K562 cells using a lentiviral-mediated RNA interference approach. Interestingly, overexpression of AHI-1 in K562 cells significantly increased cellular survival in the presence of 1, 5 and 10 uM of IM as measured by a viability assay; survival of these cells was similar to that observed in an IM resistant K562 cell line reported to be highly resistant to IM in vitro. Furthermore, suppression of AHI-1 had the opposite effect, with cells displaying heightened sensitivity to IM at concentrations as low as 1 uM. Phosphorylation and protein expression levels of several proteins known to be involved in BCR-ABL signalling, including JAK2, STAT5, AKT and NF-kB (P105, P50, and P65 subunits), were then quantified by Western blot analysis. Interestingly, elevated phosphorylation and protein expression levels of JAK2, and STAT5 and total protein expression levels NF-kB p105/p55 subunits were observed in both the AHI-1 overexpressing K562 cells and IM resistant K562 cells, while reduced phosphorylation and protein expression of these same proteins was observed in AHI-1 suppressed K562 cells. Differential expression of phosphorylated NF-kB p65 subunit at serine 536 was observed, while total protein expression levels did not significantly differ. Phosphorylated AKT expression levels were only affected in AHI-1 suppressed K562 cells, and total AKT protein expression was not affected in AHI-1 overexpressed or suppressed cells. Interestingly, AHI-1 protein expression was highly elevated at endogenous levels in the IM resistant K562 cells relative to a parental K562 cell line. These findings suggest that AHI-1 may play an important role in mediating cellular resistance to IM through activation of several signalling proteins involved in BCR-ABL signalling pathway, including JAK2 and STAT5.

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Effect of Dasatinib on Genes Related to Mitotic Catastrophe Pathway in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Cells

Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry ◽

10.2174/1871520620666201106085929 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

Author(s):

Sezgi Kipcak ◽

Buket Ozel ◽

Cigir B. Avci ◽

Leila S. Takanlou ◽

Maryam S. Takanlou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Kinase Inhibitors ◽

Fusion Gene ◽

Philadelphia Chromosome ◽

K562 Cells ◽

Mitotic Catastrophe ◽

Control Group ◽

Cancer Therapies ◽

Apoptosis Pathways

Background: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), is characterized by a reciprocal translocation t(9;22) and forms the BCR/ABL1 fusion gene, which is called the Philadelphia chromosome. The therapeutic targets for CML patients which are mediated with BCR/ABL1 oncogenic are tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as imatinib, dasatinib, and nilotinib. The latter two of which have been approved for the treatment of imatinib-resistant or intolerance CML patients. Mitotic catastrophe (MC) is one of the non-apoptotic mechanisms which frequently initiated in types of cancer cells in response to anti-cancer therapies; pharmacological inhibitors of G2 checkpoint members or genetic suppression of PLK1, PLK2, ATR, ATM, CHK1, and CHK2 can trigger DNA-damage-stimulated mitotic catastrophe. PLK1, AURKA/B anomalously expressed in CML cells, that phosphorylation and activation of PLK1 occur by AURKB at centromeres and kinetochores. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of dasatinib on the expression of genes in MC and apoptosis pathways in K562 cells. Methods: Total RNA was isolated from K-562 cells treated with the IC50 value of dasatinib and untreated cells as a control group. The expression of MC and apoptosis-related genes were analyzed by the qRT-PCR system. Results: The array-data demonstrated that dasatinib-treated K562 cells significantly caused the decrease of several genes (AURKA, AURKB, PLK, CHEK1, MYC, XPC, BCL2, and XRCC2). Conclusion: The evidence supply a basis to support clinical researches for the suppression of oncogenes such as PLKs with AURKs in the treatment of types of cancer especially chronic myeloid leukemia.

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EXPRESS: Characterization of Drug Resistance in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Cells Based on Laser Tweezers Raman Spectroscopy

Applied Spectroscopy ◽

10.1177/00037028211024581 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 000370282110245

Author(s):

Qian Zhang ◽

Minlu Ye ◽

Lingyan Wang ◽

Dongmei Jiang ◽

Shuting Yao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Raman Spectroscopy ◽

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Myeloid Leukemia ◽

K562 Cells ◽

Laser Tweezers ◽

Label Free ◽

Multivariate Statistical ◽

Analytical Strategy ◽

Specificity And Sensitivity ◽

Acid Protein

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is highly associated with poor prognosis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). This work aims to explore whether the laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy (LTRS) could be practical in separating adriamycin (ADR) resistance CML cells K562/ADR from its parental cells K562, and to explore the potential mechanisms. Detection of LTRS initially reflected the spectral differences caused by chemoresistance including bands assigned to carbohydrates, amino acid, protein, lipids and nucleic acid. In addition, principal components analysis (PCA) as well as the classification and regression trees (CRT) algorithms showed that the specificity and sensitivity were above 90%. Moreover, the band data-based CRT model and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve further determined some important bands and band intensity ratios to be reliable indexes in discriminating K562 chemoresistance status. Finally, we highlighted three metabolism pathways correlated with chemoresistance. This work demonstrates that the label-free LTRS analysis combined with multivariate statistical analyses have great potential to be a novel analytical strategy at the single-cell level for rapid evaluation the chemoresistance status of K562 cells.

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Secondary Structural Model of MALAT1 Becomes Unstructured in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and Undergoes Structural Rearrangement in Cervical Cancer

Non-Coding RNA ◽

10.3390/ncrna7010006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 6

Author(s):

Matthew C. Wang ◽

Phillip J. McCown ◽

Grace E. Schiefelbein ◽

Jessica A. Brown

Keyword(s):

Cervical Cancer ◽

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Hela Cells ◽

Binding Sites ◽

Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Structural Model ◽

Dimethyl Sulfate ◽

K562 Cells ◽

Cancer Types

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) influence cellular function through binding events that often depend on the lncRNA secondary structure. One such lncRNA, metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1), is upregulated in many cancer types and has a myriad of protein- and miRNA-binding sites. Recently, a secondary structural model of MALAT1 in noncancerous cells was proposed to form 194 hairpins and 13 pseudoknots. That study postulated that, in cancer cells, the MALAT1 structure likely varies, thereby influencing cancer progression. This work analyzes how that structural model is expected to change in K562 cells, which originated from a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and in HeLa cells, which originated from a patient with cervical cancer. Dimethyl sulfate-sequencing (DMS-Seq) data from K562 cells and psoralen analysis of RNA interactions and structure (PARIS) data from HeLa cells were compared to the working structural model of MALAT1 in noncancerous cells to identify sites that likely undergo structural alterations. MALAT1 in K562 cells is predicted to become more unstructured, with almost 60% of examined hairpins in noncancerous cells losing at least half of their base pairings. Conversely, MALAT1 in HeLa cells is predicted to largely maintain its structure, undergoing 18 novel structural rearrangements. Moreover, 50 validated miRNA-binding sites are affected by putative secondary structural changes in both cancer types, such as miR-217 in K562 cells and miR-20a in HeLa cells. Structural changes unique to K562 cells and HeLa cells provide new mechanistic leads into how the structure of MALAT1 may mediate cancer in a cell-type specific manner.

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Apoptosis Induced by Tanshinone IIA and Cryptotanshinone Is Mediated by Distinct JAK/STAT3/5 and SHP1/2 Signaling in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia K562 Cells

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine ◽

10.1155/2013/805639 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Ji Hoon Jung ◽

Tae-Rin Kwon ◽

Soo-Jin Jeong ◽

Eun-Ok Kim ◽

Eun Jung Sohn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Biological Effects ◽

K562 Cells ◽

Tanshinone Iia ◽

Anticancer Activities ◽

Caspase 9 ◽

Anticancer Effects ◽

Induced Apoptosis ◽

Better Than

Though tanshinone IIA and cryptotanshinone possess a variety of biological effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antimetabolic, and anticancer effects, the precise molecular targets or pathways responsible for anticancer activities of tanshinone IIA and cryptotanshinone in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) still remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated the effect of tanshinone IIA and cryptotanshinone on the Janus activated kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) signaling during apoptotic process. We found that both tanshinone IIA and cryptotanshinone induced apoptosis by activation of caspase-9/3 and Sub-G1 accumulation in K562 cells. However, they have the distinct JAK/STAT pathway, in which tanshinone IIA inhibits JAK2/STAT5 signaling, whereas cryptotanshinone targets the JAK2/STAT3. In addition, tanshinone IIA enhanced the expression of both SHP-1 and -2, while cryptotanshinone regulated the expression of only SHP-1. Both tanshinone IIA and cryptotanshinone attenuated the expression of bcl-xL, survivin, and cyclin D1. Furthermore, tanshinone IIA augmented synergy with imatinib, a CML chemotherapeutic drug, better than cryptotanshinone in K562 cells. Overall, our findings suggest that the anticancer activity of tanshinone IIA and cryptotanshinone is mediated by the distinct the JAK/STAT3/5 and SHP1/2 signaling, and tanshinone IIA has the potential for combination therapy with imatinib in K562 CML cells.

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Predictive value of tyrosine phosphatase receptor gamma for the response to treatment tyrosine kinase inhibitors in chronic myeloid leukemia patients

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-86875-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mohamed A. Ismail ◽

Marzia Vezzalini ◽

Hisham Morsi ◽

Ahmad Abujaber ◽

Ali Al Sayab ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Flow Cytometry ◽

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Tyrosine Kinase ◽

Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors ◽

Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Kinase Inhibitors ◽

Tyrosine Phosphatase ◽

Expression Level ◽

Response To Treatment ◽

Healthy Individuals

AbstractProtein tyrosine phosphatase receptor gamma (PTPRG) is a member of the receptor-like family protein tyrosine phosphatases and acts as a tumor suppressor gene in different neoplasms. Recent studies reported the down-regulation of PTPRG expression levels in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia disease (CML). In addition, the BCR-ABL1 transcript level is currently a key predictive biomarker of CML response to treatment with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs). The aim of this study was to employ flow cytometry to monitor the changes in the expression level of PTPRG in the white blood cells (WBCs) of CML patients at the time of diagnosis and following treatment with TKIs. WBCs from peripheral blood of 21 CML patients were extracted at diagnosis and during follow up along with seven healthy individuals. The PTPRG expression level was determined at protein and mRNA levels by both flow cytometry with monoclonal antibody (TPγ B9-2) and RT-qPCR, and BCR-ABL1 transcript by RT-qPCR, respectively. PTPRG expression was found to be lower in the neutrophils and monocytes of CML patients at time of diagnosis compared to healthy individuals. Treatment with TKIs nilotinib and Imatinib Mesylate restored the expression of PTPRG in the WBCs of CML patients to levels observed in healthy controls. Moreover, restoration levels were greatest in optimal responders and occurred earlier with nilotinib compared to imatinib. Our results support the measurement of PTPRG expression level in the WBCs of CML patients by flow cytometry as a monitoring tool for the response to treatment with TKIs in CML patients.

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