The tumor suppressor PP2A is functionally inactivated in blast crisis CML through the inhibitory activity of the BCR/ABL-regulated SET protein.

Journal: Cancer Cell
Published:
Abstract

The oncogenic BCR/ABL kinase activity induces and maintains chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). We show here that, in BCR/ABL-transformed cells and CML blast crisis (CML-BC) progenitors, the phosphatase activity of the tumor suppressor PP2A is inhibited by the BCR/ABL-induced expression of the PP2A inhibitor SET. In imatinib-sensitive and -resistant (T315I included) BCR/ABL+ cell lines and CML-BC progenitors, molecular and/or pharmacological activation of PP2A promotes dephosphorylation of key regulators of cell proliferation and survival, suppresses BCR/ABL activity, and induces BCR/ABL degradation. Furthermore, PP2A activation results in growth suppression, enhanced apoptosis, restored differentiation, impaired clonogenic potential, and decreased in vivo leukemogenesis of imatinib-sensitive and -resistant BCR/ABL+ cells. Thus, functional inactivation of PP2A is essential for BCR/ABL leukemogenesis and, perhaps, required for blastic transformation.

Authors
Paolo Neviani, Ramasamy Santhanam, Rossana Trotta, Mario Notari, Bradley Blaser, Shujun Liu, Hsiaoyin Mao, Ji Chang, Annamaria Galietta, Ashwin Uttam, Denis Roy, Mauro Valtieri, Rebecca Bruner Klisovic, Michael Caligiuri, Clara Bloomfield, Guido Marcucci, Danilo Perrotti