Project description:We present a single-cell framework that integrates highly multiplexed protein quantification, transcriptome profiling, and chromatin accessibility analysis. Using this approach, we establish a normal epigenetic baseline for healthy blood development, which we then use to deconvolve aberrant molecular features within blood from mixed-phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) patients.
Project description:Mixed phenotype (MP) in acute leukemias poses unique classification and management dilemmas and can be seen in entities other than de novo mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL). Although WHO classification empirically recommends excluding AML with myelodysplasia related changes (AML-MRC) and therapy related AML (t-AML) with mixed phenotype (referred to as “AML-MP”) from MPAL, there is lack of studies investigating the clinical, genetic, and biologic features of AML-MP. We report the first cohort of AML-MP integrating their clinical, immunophenotypic, genomic and transcriptomic features with comparison to MPAL and AML without MP. Patients with AML-MP share similar clinical and genetic features to its AML counterpart but differs from MPAL. AML-MP harbors more frequent RUNX1 mutations than AML without MP and MPAL. RUNX1 mutations or complex karyotypes did not impact the survival of MPAL patients. Unsupervised hierarchal clustering based on immunophenotype identified biologically distinct clusters with phenotype/genotype correlation and outcome differences. Furthermore, transcriptomic analysis showed an enrichment for stemness signature in AML-MP and AML without MP as compared to MPAL. Lastly, MPAL but not AML-MP often switched to lymphoid only immunophenotype after treatment. Expression of transcription factors critical for lymphoid differentiation were upregulated only in MPAL, but not in AML-MP. Our study for the first time demonstrates that AML-MP clinically and biologically resembles its AML counterpart without MP and differs from MPAL, supporting the recommendation to exclude these patients from the diagnosis of MPAL. Future studies are needed to elucidate the molecular mechanism of mixed phenotype in AML.
Project description:Mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) also known as acute leukemia of ambiguous lineage (ALAL), is characterized by leukemic blasts with both lymphoid and myeloid cell surface markers. Here, we use SC multiomic profiling on newly diagnosed MPAL samples to characterize the immunophenotypic, genetic, and transcriptional landscapes of MPAL. This profiling allows us to definitively contradict the paradigm of MPAL as a disease on a continuum with myeloid and lymphoid lineage acute leukemias, and instead identifies MPAL as a distinct, stem-like disease that, unlike other leukemias, cannot be defined by genetics alone. We further describe a stem cell gene expression signature for MPAL that can predict patient survival. These results broaden our understanding of MPAL biology and suggest a path toward novel risk stratification for MPAL. Importantly, these findings have potential to direct treatment and, hopefully, ultimately improve the prognosis of this disease.