Abstract
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia in adults and is propagated by leukemic stem cells (LSCs), often characterized by deregulated Wnt signaling. We previously showed that the central transcriptional mediator of Wnt signaling LEF1 is able to cause AML in mice and acts as an independent prognostic factor in normal karyotype AML. Here, we show that treatment naïve normal karyotype AML as well as samples AML LSCs predominantly express the long β-catenin-binding isoform of LEF1 in sharp contrast to normal human hematopoietic stem cells, which lack expression of the long isoform, but express the short N-terminally truncated isoform with loss of the β-catenin-binding site. Gene expression and ChiP-Seq analyses in mice linked the long isoform to Wnt-β-catenin signaling and oncogenic pathways, the N-terminally truncated isoform to stemness associated genes. Approaches impairing binding of LEF1 to β-catenin significantly impaired AML growth, but spared normal hematopoietic stem cells. This report now demonstrates a striking difference of LEF1 isoform expression between normal and AML cells, contributing to higher vulnerability of leukemic cells to approaches targeting β-catenin/LEF1 interaction.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
£169.00 per year
only £14.08 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Dohner H, Estey E, Grimwade D, Amadori S, Appelbaum FR, Buchner T, et al. Diagnosis and management of AML in adults: 2017 ELN recommendations from an international expert panel. Blood. 2017;129:424–47.
Eppert K, Takenaka K, Lechman ER, Waldron L, Nilsson B, van Galen P, et al. Stem cell gene expression programs influence clinical outcome in human leukemia. Nat Med. 2011;17:1086–93.
Ng SW, Mitchell A, Kennedy JA, Chen WC, McLeod J, Ibrahimova N, et al. A 17-gene stemness score for rapid determination of risk in acute leukaemia. Nature. 2016;540:433–7.
Pollyea DA, Jordan CT. Therapeutic targeting of acute myeloid leukemia stem cells. Blood. 2017;129:1627–35.
Pei S, Minhajuddin M, Adane B, Khan N, Stevens BM, Mack SC, et al. AMPK/FIS1-mediated mitophagy is required for self-renewal of human AML stem cells. Cell Stem Cell. 2018;23:86–100 e106.
Nusse R, Clevers H. Wnt/beta-catenin signaling, disease, and emerging therapeutic modalities. Cell. 2017;169:985–99.
Simon M, Grandage VL, Linch DC, Khwaja A. Constitutive activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin signalling pathway in acute myeloid leukaemia. Oncogene. 2005;24:2410–20.
Eaves CJ, Humphries RK. Acute myeloid leukemia and the Wnt pathway. N Engl J Med. 2010;362:2326–7.
Reya T, O’Riordan M, Okamura R, Devaney E, Willert K, Nusse R, et al. Wnt signaling regulates B lymphocyte proliferation through a LEF-1 dependent mechanism. Immunity. 2000;13:15–24.
Travis A, Amsterdam A, Belanger C, Grosschedl R. LEF-1, a gene encoding a lymphoid-specific protein with an HMG domain, regulates T-cell receptor alpha enhancer function [corrected]. Genes Dev. 1991;5:880–94.
Shtutman M, Zhurinsky J, Simcha I, Albanese C, D’Amico M, Pestell R, et al. The cyclin D1 gene is a target of the beta-catenin/LEF-1 pathway. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1999;96:5522–7.
Skokowa J, Cario G, Uenalan M, Schambach A, Germeshausen M, Battmer K, et al. LEF-1 is crucial for neutrophil granulocytopoiesis and its expression is severely reduced in congenital neutropenia. Nat Med. 2006;12:1191–7.
Skokowa J, Klimiankou M, Klimenkova O, Lan D, Gupta K, Hussein K, et al. Interactions among HCLS1, HAX1 and LEF-1 proteins are essential for G-CSF-triggered granulopoiesis. Nat Med. 2012;18:1550–9.
Jamieson CH, Ailles LE, Dylla SJ, Muijtjens M, Jones C, Zehnder JL, et al. Granulocyte-macrophage progenitors as candidate leukemic stem cells in blast-crisis CML. N Engl J Med. 2004;351:657–67.
Hovanes K, Li TW, Munguia JE, Truong T, Milovanovic T, Lawrence Marsh J, et al. Beta-catenin-sensitive isoforms of lymphoid enhancer factor-1 are selectively expressed in colon cancer. Nat Genet. 2001;28:53–57.
Li TW, Ting JH, Yokoyama NN, Bernstein A, van de Wetering M, Waterman ML. Wnt activation and alternative promoter repression of LEF1 in colon cancer. Mol Cell Biol. 2006;26:5284–99.
Yokoyama NN, Pate KT, Sprowl S, Waterman ML. A role for YY1 in repression of dominant negative LEF-1 expression in colon cancer. Nucleic Acids Res. 2010;38:6375–88.
Petropoulos K, Arseni N, Schessl C, Stadler CR, Rawat VP, Deshpande AJ, et al. A novel role for Lef-1, a central transcription mediator of Wnt signaling, in leukemogenesis. J Exp Med. 2008;205:515–22.
Edmaier KE, Stahnke K, Vegi N, Mulaw M, Ihme S, Scheffold A, et al. Expression of the lymphoid enhancer factor 1 is required for normal hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell function. Leukemia. 2014;28:227–30.
Metzeler KH, Heilmeier B, Edmaier KE, Rawat VP, Dufour A, Dohner K, et al. High expression of lymphoid enhancer-binding factor-1 (LEF1) is a novel favorable prognostic factor in cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia. Blood. 2012;120:2118–26.
Anjos-Afonso F, Currie E, Palmer HG, Foster KE, Taussig DC, Bonnet D. CD34(-) cells at the apex of the human hematopoietic stem cell hierarchy have distinctive cellular and molecular signatures. Cell Stem Cell. 2013;13:161–74.
Notta F, Doulatov S, Laurenti E, Poeppl A, Jurisica I, Dick JE. Isolation of single human hematopoietic stem cells capable of long-term multilineage engraftment. Science. 2011;333:218–21.
Hsieh TH, Hsu CY, Tsai CF, Chiu CC, Liang SS, Wang TN, et al. A novel cell-penetrating peptide suppresses breast tumorigenesis by inhibiting beta-catenin/LEF-1 signaling. Sci Rep. 2016;6:19156.
Gandhirajan RK, Staib PA, Minke K, Gehrke I, Plickert G, Schlosser A, et al. Small molecule inhibitors of Wnt/beta-catenin/lef-1 signaling induces apoptosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells in vitro and in vivo. Neoplasia. 2010;12:326–35.
Lepourcelet M, Chen YN, France DS, Wang H, Crews P, Petersen F, et al. Small-molecule antagonists of the oncogenic Tcf/beta-catenin protein complex. Cancer Cell. 2004;5:91–102.
Minke KS, Staib P, Puetter A, Gehrke I, Gandhirajan RK, Schlosser A, et al. Small molecule inhibitors of WNT signaling effectively induce apoptosis in acute myeloid leukemia cells. Eur J Haematol. 2009;82:165–75.
Nakamura T, Nakamura T, Matsumoto K. The functions and possible significance of Kremen as the gatekeeper of Wnt signalling in development and pathology. J Cell Mol Med. 2008;12:391–408.
Fuchs SY, Chen A, Xiong Y, Pan ZQ, Ronai ZHOS. a human homolog of Slimb, forms an SCF complex with Skp1 and Cullin1 and targets the phosphorylation-dependent degradation of IkappaB and beta-catenin. Oncogene. 1999;18:2039–46.
Stein SJ, Baldwin AS. Deletion of the NF-kappaB subunit p65/RelA in the hematopoietic compartment leads to defects in hematopoietic stem cell function. Blood. 2013;121:5015–24.
Staal FJ, Famili F, Garcia Perez L, Pike-Overzet K. Aberrant Wnt signaling in leukemia. Cancers Basel. 2016;8:1–15.
Yeung J, Esposito MT, Gandillet A, Zeisig BB, Griessinger E, Bonnet D, et al. beta-Catenin mediates the establishment and drug resistance of MLL leukemic stem cells. Cancer cell. 2010;18:606–18.
Wang Y, Krivtsov AV, Sinha AU, North TE, Goessling W, Feng Z, et al. The Wnt/beta-catenin pathway is required for the development of leukemia stem cells in AML. Science. 2010;327:1650–3.
Valencia A, Roman-Gomez J, Cervera J, Such E, Barragan E, Bolufer P, et al. Wnt signaling pathway is epigenetically regulated by methylation of Wnt antagonists in acute myeloid leukemia. Leukemia. 2009;23:1658–66.
Liang H, Chen Q, Coles AH, Anderson SJ, Pihan G, Bradley A, et al. Wnt5a inhibits B cell proliferation and functions as a tumor suppressor in hematopoietic tissue. Cancer Cell. 2003;4:349–60.
Famili F, Brugman MH, Taskesen E, Naber BEA, Fodde R, Staal FJT. High levels of canonical Wnt signaling lead to loss of stemness and increased differentiation in hematopoietic stem cells. Stem Cell Rep. 2016;6:652–9.
Famili F, Naber BA, Vloemans S, de Haas EF, Tiemessen MM, Staal FJ. Discrete roles of canonical and non-canonical Wnt signaling in hematopoiesis and lymphopoiesis. Cell Death Dis. 2015;6:e1981.
Sugimura R, He XC, Venkatraman A, Arai F, Box A, Semerad C, et al. Noncanonical Wnt signaling maintains hematopoietic stem cells in the niche. Cell. 2012;150:351–65.
Vacik T, Lemke G. Dominant-negative isoforms of Tcf/Lef proteins in development and disease. Cell Cycle. 2011;10:4199–4200.
Mikels AJ, Nusse R. Purified Wnt5a protein activates or inhibits beta-catenin-TCF signaling depending on receptor context. PLoS Biol. 2006;4:e115.
Nakamura T, Aoki S, Kitajima K, Takahashi T, Matsumoto K, Nakamura T. Molecular cloning and characterization of Kremen, a novel kringle-containing transmembrane protein. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2001;1518:63–72.
Zebisch M, Jackson VA, Zhao Y, Jones EY. Structure of the dual-mode Wnt regulator Kremen1 and insight into ternary complex formation with LRP6 and Dickkopf. Structure. 2016;24:1599–605.
Bungartz G, Land H, Scadden DT, Emerson SG. NF-Y is necessary for hematopoietic stem cell proliferation and survival. Blood. 2012;119:1380–9.
Dolfini D, Minuzzo M, Pavesi G, Mantovani R. The short isoform of NF-YA belongs to the embryonic stem cell transcription factor circuitry. Stem Cells. 2012;30:2450–9.
Gonzalez-Sancho JM, Aguilera O, Garcia JM, Pendas-Franco N, Pena C, Cal S, et al. The Wnt antagonist DICKKOPF-1 gene is a downstream target of beta-catenin/TCF and is downregulated in human colon cancer. Oncogene. 2005;24:1098–103.
Zimmerli D, Hausmann G, Cantu C, Basler K. Pharmacological interventions in the Wnt pathway: inhibition of Wnt secretion versus disrupting the protein-protein interfaces of nuclear factors. Br J Pharm. 2017;174:4600–10.
Kahn M. Can we safely target the WNT pathway? Nat Rev Drug Disco. 2014;13:513–32.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all members of the Core Facility FACS, Core Facility Genomics of the University Ulm and the animal facility of the Helmholtz Centre Munich and the University Ulm for breeding and maintenance of the animals. The work was supported by the grant from the DFG (SFB 1074 project A4 to KF and CB, A6 to MFB, Z1 to CB, HAK and JMK and B3 to KD) and funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – GRK 1789.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Feder, K., Edmaier-Schröger, K., Rawat, V.P.S. et al. Differences in expression and function of LEF1 isoforms in normal versus leukemic hematopoiesis. Leukemia 34, 1027–1037 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-019-0635-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-019-0635-1