Pluto Bioinformatics

GSE74064: Therapeutic targeting of myeloid leukemias with spliceosomal mutations through modulation of splicing catalysis

Bulk RNA sequencing

Mutations in spliceosomal genes are commonly found in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). These mutations occur at highly restricted amino acid residues and perturb normal splice site and exon recognition. Spliceosomal mutations are always heterozygous and rarely co-occur with one another, suggesting that cells may only tolerate a partial deviation from normal splicing activity. To test this hypothesis, we generated mice with inducible hemizygous expression of the commonly occurring SRSF2P95H mutation in the hematopoietic system. These mice rapidly developed lethal bone marrow failure upon activation of the Srsf2P95H mutation with concomitant deletion of the wildtype Srsf2 allele, demonstrating that Srsf2-mutant cells depend on the wildtype Srsf2 allele for survival. We next tested whether spliceosomal-mutant leukemias display greater sensitivity to pharmacologic splicing inhibition induced by the small molecule E7107. Treatment of isogenic murine leukemias as well as patient-derived xenograft (PDX) AMLs showed significant reductions in leukemic burden specifically in samples carrying spliceosomal mutations. Collectively, these data provide genetic and pharmacologic evidence that leukemias with spliceosomal mutations are preferentially susceptible to additional splicing perturbations in vivo compared with wildtype counterparts. Modulation of spliceosome function may provide a novel therapeutic avenue in genetically defined subsets of MDS/AML patients. SOURCE: Heidi DvingeR. Bradley Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center