Publications

Inflammation-driven deaminase deregulation fuels human pre-leukemia stem cell evolution

Jiang Q, Isquith J, Ladel L, Mark A, Holm F, Mason C, He Y, Mondala P, Oliver I, Pham J, Ma W, Reynoso E, Ali S, Morris IJ, Diep R, Nasamran C, Xu G, Sasik R, Rosenthal SB, Birmingham A, Coso S, Pineda G, Crews L, Donohoe ME, Venter JC, Whisenant T, Mesa RA, Alexandrov LB, Fisch KM, Jamieson C

PMID: 33503434

Abstract

Inflammation-dependent base deaminases promote therapeutic resistance in many malignancies. However, their roles in human pre-leukemia stem cell (pre-LSC) evolution to acute myeloid leukemia stem cells (LSCs) had not been elucidated. Comparative whole-genome and whole-transcriptome sequencing analyses of FACS-purified pre-LSCs from myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) patients reveal APOBEC3C upregulation, an increased C-to-T mutational burden, and hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) proliferation during progression, which can be recapitulated by lentiviral APOBEC3C overexpression. In pre-LSCs, inflammatory splice isoform overexpression coincides with APOBEC3C upregulation and ADAR1p150-induced A-to-I RNA hyper-editing. Pre-LSC evolution to LSCs is marked by STAT3 editing, STAT3β isoform switching, elevated phospho-STAT3, and increased ADAR1p150 expression, which can be prevented by JAK2/STAT3 inhibition with ruxolitinib or fedratinib or lentiviral ADAR1 shRNA knockdown. Conversely, lentiviral ADAR1p150 expression enhances pre-LSC replating and STAT3 splice isoform switching. Thus, pre-LSC evolution to LSCs is fueled by primate-specific APOBEC3C-induced pre-LSC proliferation and ADAR1-mediated splicing deregulation.