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Epigenetic control of gene expression in leukemogenesis: Cooperation between wild type MLL and MLL fusion proteins.

ABSTRACT: Although there has been great progress in the treatment of human cancers, especially leukemias, many remain resistant to treatment. A major current focus is the development of so-called epigenetic drugs. Epigenetic states are stable enough to persist through multiple cell divisions, but by their very nature are reversible and thus are amenable to therapeutic manipulation. Exciting work in this area has produced a new breed of highly specific small molecules designed to inhibit epigenetic proteins, some of which have entered clinical trials. The current and future development of epigenetic drugs is greatly aided by highly detailed information about normal and aberrant epigenetic changes at the molecular level. In this review we focus on a class of aggressive acute leukemias caused by mutations in the Mixed Lineage Leukemia (MLL) gene. We provide an overview of how detailed molecular analysis of MLL leukemias has provided several early-stage epigenetic drugs and propose that further study of MLL leukemogenesis may continue to provide molecular details that potentially have a wider range of applications in human cancers.

SUBMITTER: Ballabio E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4905190 | biostudies-other | 2014 Apr-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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MLL-AF9-induced leukemogenesis requires coexpression of the wild-type Mll allele.

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Menin-MLL inhibitors reverse oncogenic activity of MLL fusion proteins in leukemia.

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MLL Fusion Proteins Preferentially Regulate a Small Set of Wild Type MLL Target Genes in the Leukemic Genome

Project description:MLL encodes a histone methyltransferase that is critical in maintaining gene expression during embryonic development and hematopoiesis. 11q23 translocations encode chimeric MLL fusions that act as potent drivers of acute leukemia. However, it remains unclear what portion of the leukemic genome is under the direct control of the MLL fusion protein. By comparing patient-derived leukemic cell lines, we find that MLL fusion-bound genes are a small subset of that recognized by wild-type MLL. In an inducible MLL-ENL cellular model, binding of the MLL fusion protein and changes in H3K79 methylation are limited to a specific portion of the genome, whereas wild-type MLL distributes to a much larger set of gene loci. Surprisingly, among 223 MLL fusion-bound genes, only 12 demonstrate a significant increase in mRNA expression upon induction of the fusion protein. In addition to Hoxa9 and Meis1, this includes Eya1 and Six1 which comprise a heterodimeric transcription factor important in several developmental pathways. We show that Eya1 has the capacity to immortalize hematopoietic progenitor cells in vitro and collaborates with Six1 in hematopoietic transformation assays. Altogether, our data suggest that MLL fusions contribute to the development of acute leukemia through direct activation of a small set of target genes. We explored an inducible MLL-ENL cellular model, which was obtained from Dr. Robert Slany (University Erlangen, Germany). We wished to examine the differential expressed genes that are bound by MLL wild type (No 4-OHT) and fusion (4-OHT) proteins, combinding the ChIP-chip data to explore the potential MLL fusion-regulated genes.

2011-04-28 | E-GEOD-24794 | biostudies-arrayexpress

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