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Decreased sensitivity of 17p‐deleted chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells to a small molecule BCL‐2 antagonist ABT‐737
Author(s) -
Kojima Kensuke,
Duvvuri Seshagiri,
Ruvolo Vivian,
Samaniego Felipe,
Younes Anas,
Andreeff Michael
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/cncr.26360
Subject(s) - fludarabine , chronic lymphocytic leukemia , apoptosis , gene knockdown , annexin , cancer research , leukemia , venetoclax , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , immunology , chemotherapy , genetics , cyclophosphamide
BACKGROUND: Despite the high complete response rates achieved with fludarabine‐based regimens, relapse is inevitable in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Relapsed patients often acquire deletions of the short arm of chromosome 17 (del[17p]), which are closely associated with tumor protein 53 ( TP53 ) mutations. Wild‐type p53 up‐regulates and activates B‐cell CLL/lymphoma 2 (BCL‐2)‐associated X protein (BAX), and it down‐regulates and inactivates BCL‐2. The small‐molecule BCL‐2 inhibitor ABT‐737 induces apoptosis in a BAX‐dependent and BCL‐2 homologous antagonist‐killer (BAK)‐dependent manner. The role of p53 in sensitivity of CLL cells to BCL‐2 inhibition has not been extensively investigated. METHODS: The authors investigated the association of del(17p) with ABT‐737 sensitivity in CLL cells from 50 patients. Stable p53 and BAX knockdown cells were used for mechanistic studies. RESULTS: CLL cells with del(17p) were less sensitive to ABT‐737‐induced BAX activation and apoptosis than CLL cells without del(17p) (39% ± 7.3% vs 63.7% ± 2.9% [specific annexin V induction]; P < .01). A positive correlation between the degrees of apoptosis induced by ABT‐737 and by the p53‐activating binding protein homolog murine double minute (MDM2) antagonist nutlin‐3a (correlation coefficient [ r ] = 0.75; P < .0001) was observed. CLL cells with del(17p) expressed lower levels of BAX than those without del(17p) (0.67 ± 0.12 vs 1.27 ± 0.10 in relative protein expression levels; P < .01). Knockdown of p53 or BAX in leukemia cells resulted in decreased apoptosis induced by ABT‐737. CONCLUSIONS: The current data indicated that p53 dysfunction may lead to decreased apoptosis induction by ABT‐737. Cancer 2012;. © 2011 American Cancer Society.