Identification and investigation of the differentially expressed genes in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and controls

Author(s)

Cintia do Couto Mascarenhas

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Ciências Médicas
• Defense date: 2013-05-07

Examining board members

Carmino Antonio de Souza; Francisco Jose Penteado Aranha; Carmen Silvia Passos Lima; Monika Conchon Ribeiro de Melo; Maria de Lourdes Lopes Ferrari Chauffaille

• Advisor: Carmino Antonio de Souza; Fernando Ferreira Costa

Abstract

The elucidation of the molecular mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology and treatment of blood disorders, as well as the understanding of genes expression profiling of leukemia cell lines has been the focus of numerous investigations. The use of the SSH (Suppression Subtractive Hybridization Library or Suppression Subtractive) technique made available the identification of important genes which are differentially expressed in granulocytes from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and healthy controls. 39 genes overexpressed were found, and 173 with decreased expression in CML cells. When correlating these genes with metabolic pathways that are regulated positively (increased expression) or negatively (decreased expression) in this disease, it was found that most of the genes were related to the regulation of NF-kB, AKT, Interferon and IL-4 in control cells. The following genes were found overexpressed in CML: SEPT5, RUNX1, MIER1, KPNA6 and FLT3, while PAN3, TOB1 and ITCH were found with decreased expression in this disease compared with controls. The TOB1 gene showed promising since it is a tumor suppressor, may be involved in the proliferation of leukaemic cells and interacts with several others genes found in this study. Thus, due to the great heterogeneity of functions related to this gene, was investigated the relationship between mRNA expression and TKI's responses. The evaluation was performed by real time PCR in patients with CCgR, PCgR, MINCgR and NOCgR after treatment with TKI and healthy controls. Was observed that patients that have NOCgR, the TOB1 expression is significantly lower compared with healthy donors and patients who achieved CCgR. When comparing non-resistant and resistant patients the difference also was significant. These results suggest that reduced expression of TOB1 in NOCgR patients may indicate apoptosis deregulation and changes in important signaling pathways of CML including the Akt pathway, thereby leading to TKI's resistance of these patients. Another aim of this work was to characterize the function of TOB1 and SEPT5 in cellular processes and signaling pathways of apoptosis, proliferation, migration and cell cycle in leukemic cell lines. After the silencing of these genes (using lentiviral particles), was noted that the silencing TOB1 - as described in the literature for other diseases - interferes in cell proliferation, clonogenicity, apoptosis, cell cycle and in expression of important proteins at signaling cascade, which emphasizes its importance in BCR-ABL positive cells. The SEPT5 silencing leads to some changes such as apoptosis and cell cycle. In this context, the silencing of these genes leads to attention of possibilities of control of cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle and cell clonogenicity in BCR-ABL positive cells. Was assessed the expression of these genes in cells from peripheral blood and bone marrow of CML patients and controls, as well in human and murine cell lines. Results showed a significant increase in SEPT5 gene expression in patients with CML in all cell types evaluated. The same profile was observed in murine cells BAF3T315I and in human cells having the translocation t (9; 22) been related to blast crisis [K562, KU812, NALM]. When measuring expression of TOB1, was noted decrease in all cell types studied in CML patients and cells BaF3T315I. Another interesting result was obtained from the analysis of cell adhesion at granulocytes in CML patients and controls which showed decreased adhesion of granulocytes in CML patients compared to controls, leading to the hypothesis that the change in adhesive properties at CML can be directly linked to the release of young cells by bone marrow. The creation of strategies that lead to better understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and advance in the treatment of CML should be focused on several target genes and not only in BCR-ABL, since in the development of CML there is an activation and deactivation of multiple signaling pathways . The results of this study may help to better understand these pathways and also to identify other genes and pathways useful for improving the management and development of new therapeutic drugs to treat this disease (AU)