1. Academic Validation
  2. TSPAN32 suppresses chronic myeloid leukemia pathogenesis and progression by stabilizing PTEN

TSPAN32 suppresses chronic myeloid leukemia pathogenesis and progression by stabilizing PTEN

  • Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2023 Mar 1;8(1):90. doi: 10.1038/s41392-022-01290-7.
Qiang Qiu # 1 2 Yuanyuan Sun # 1 2 Linyu Yang # 2 Qingqing Li 1 2 Yunyu Feng 1 2 Mengyuan Li 1 2 Yuexia Yin 1 2 Li Zheng 1 2 Ning Li 1 2 Huandi Qiu 1 2 Xue Cui 1 2 Wei He 1 2 Bochuan Wang 1 2 Cong Pan 1 2 Zi Wang 3 Juan Huang 4 Klarke M Sample 5 Zhihui Li 6 7 Yiguo Hu 8 9 10
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Thyroid Surgery, National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
  • 2 State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
  • 3 Department of Oncology, Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.
  • 4 Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
  • 5 Institute of Life Science, eBond Pharmaceutical Technology Ltd., Chengdu, China.
  • 6 Laboratory of thyroid and parathyroid disease, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
  • 7 Department of Thyroid Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
  • 8 Department of Thyroid Surgery, National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. [email protected].
  • 9 State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. [email protected].
  • 10 Department of Thyroid Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. [email protected].
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

We report herein that TSPAN32 is a key node factor for Philadelphia (Ph+) leukemia pathogenesis. We found that TSPAN32 expression was repressed by Bcr-Abl and ectopic TSPAN32 expression upon Imatinib treatment inhibited the proliferation of Ph+ cell lines. Tspan32 overexpression significantly prevented Bcr-Abl induced leukemia progression in a murine model and impaired leukemia stem cell (LSC) proliferation. LSCs represent an obstacle for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) elimination, which continually replenish leukemia cells and are associated with disease relapse. Therefore, the identification of essential targets that contribute to the survival and self-renewal of LSCs is important for novel curative CML. Mechanistically, TSPAN32 was shown to interact with PTEN, increased its protein level and caused a reduction in PI3K-AKT signaling activity. We also found that TSPAN32 was repressed by Bcr-Abl via the suppression of an important transcription factor, TAL1. Ectopic expression of TAL1 significantly increased TSPAN32 mRNA and protein level, which indicated that Bcr-Abl repressed TSPAN32 transcription by decreasing TAL1 expression. Overall, we identified a new signaling axis composed of "BCR-ABL-TAL1-TSPAN32-PTEN-PI3K-AKT". Our findings further complement the known mechanisms underlying the transformation potential of Bcr-Abl in CML pathogenesis. This new signaling axis also provides a potential means to target PI3K-AKT for CML treatment.

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