DNA Methylation Patterns at Relapse in Adult Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia1
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Vol. 8, 1897–1903, June 2002 Clinical Cancer Research 1897 DNA Methylation Patterns at Relapse in Adult Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia1 Guillermo Garcia-Manero,2 Carlos Bueso-Ramos, Conclusions: In summary, DNA methylation patterns Jerry Daniel, Jason Williamson, are stable in a majority of patients with relapsed ALL, but a subset of patients acquire new methylation changes, in Hagop M. Kantarjian, and Jean-Pierre J. Issa particular affecting cell cycle regulatory genes. Departments of Leukemia [G. G-M., J. D., J. W., H. M. K., J-P. J. I.] and Hematopathology [C. B-R.], University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030 INTRODUCTION DNA methylation refers to the addition of a methyl group to the cytosine in a cytosine-guanosine pair (CpG). CpG pairs ABSTRACT are underrepresented in eukaryotic genomes but can be found at Purpose: Aberrant DNA methylation of promoter- near-expected frequency in intergenic repetitive sequences such associated CpG islands is an epigenetic DNA modification as Alu repeats or in the proximity of gene promoters. Methyl- observed in acute leukemias that in certain cases has been ation of these promoter-associated areas has been associated associated with a poor prognosis and increased relapse rates. with gene silencing and is a physiological compensatory dosage To study the role of DNA methylation in relapse mecha- mechanism in X-linked and imprinted genes. By silencing func- nisms in acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), we have com- tionally relevant genes, aberrant DNA methylation has been pared the methylation status of five genes at the time of linked to diverse human pathologies (1), including cancer (2) initial presentation and at first relapse in 25 adult patients and aging (3). Aberrant methylation of multiple promoter-asso- with ALL. ciated CpG islands has been found in acute leukemias (4–6). Experimental Design: Genes studied included the estro- These studies have revealed that subgroups of patients with gen receptor (ER), multidrug resistance gene 1 (MDR1), p73, acute leukemia are characterized by a hypermethylator pheno- p15, and p16. DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded type defined by the simultaneous methylation of multiple genes. bone marrow biopsies. DNA methylation was analyzed using This is similar to the CpG island methylator phenotype de- PCR of bisulfite-modified DNA. scribed in colon cancer (7) and suggests that aberrant methyla- Results: Results indicate that methylation at the time of tion is an important oncogenic mechanism in acute leukemias. relapse was stable in 92% of patients for p73, 88% for ER, Methylation of several genes has been associated with poor 80% for p16, 72% for MDR1, and 60% for p15. Only one prognosis in patients with acute leukemia. Hypermethylation of the calcitonin gene has been associated with poor prognosis and case had p16 methylation at initial presentation, whereas 6 3 had methylation at relapse. Three disease progression in ALL (8–10). This phenomenon has also (0.0001 ؍ patients (P cases had concomitant methylation of p15 and p16 at re- been observed for HIC1 (11) and WT-1 (12) in AML. In con- trast, hypermethylation of ER has been associated with a better lapse. The degree of MDR1 methylation inversely correlated prognosis in AML (13), although abnormal methylation of this with the presence of MDR1 expression as detected by im- gene is also found at the time of relapse (14). In bladder cancer, munohistochemistry. Eighteen patients (72%) had acquired hypomethylation of the MDR1 gene has been associated with no or one methylation change, whereas the rest (28%) had protein reexpression and a chemoresistant phenotype at relapse methylation changes in two or three genes. No clinical- (15). p15 and p16, two cell cycle regulatory genes, are consid- biological correlations were found between methylation of ered tumor suppressor genes. Diverse abnormalities of these two any particular gene or pattern. genes, including p15 methylation, have been shown to be ac- quired at the time of relapse in pediatric ALL (16). Methylation of p15 has been shown to confer poor prognosis and to predict the risk of relapse in patients with acute leukemias (17, 18). Received 11/15/01; accepted 3/14/02. Methylation of p16, a rare event in human leukemias (6, 19), has The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the been associated with disease progression in adult T-cell leuke- payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked mia (20). Other lymphoid neoplasms, such as non-Hodgkin’s advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to lymphomas, also are characterized by abnormal methylation of indicate this fact. 1 This study was supported in part by a Translational Research Grant these two genes, a phenomenon also associated with relapse from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America and Research Grant RPG-99-098-01 from the American Cancer Society (to J-P. J. I.). G. G-M. is the recipient of a Career Development Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Peggy Howard Memo- rial Fund. 3 The abbreviations used are: ALL, acute lymphocytic leukemia; AML, 2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of acute myeloid leukemia; MRD, minimal residual disease; ER, estrogen Leukemia, Box 428, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Cen- receptor; MDR1, multidrug resistance 1; CR, complete remission; MSP, ter, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030. Phone: (713) 745- methylation-specific PCR; COBRA, combined bisulfite restriction 3428; Fax: (713) 794-4297; E-mail: [email protected]. analysis. Downloaded from clincancerres.aacrjournals.org on September 27, 2021. © 2002 American Association for Cancer Research. 1898 Methylation Profiling in Relapse ALL Table 1 Genes studied Gene accession Restriction enzyme Annealing temperatures number Primers (coordinates) Restriction sites (no. of cycles) ER GGTTTTTGAGTTTTTTGTTTTG (300) BstUI 60 (3), 57 (4), 54 (5), 51 (25) X03635 AACTTACTACTATCCAAATACACCTC (505) 1 p15 GGAGTTTAAGGGGGTGGG (24747) BstUI 59 (37) AC000049 CCTAAATTACTTCTAAAAAAAAAC (24918) 2 MDR1 GTTATAGGAAGTTTGAGTTT (140829) TaqI 54 (3), 51 (4), 48 (5), 45 (26) AC002457 AAAAACTATCCCATAATAAC (141001) 1 p73 methylated ACCCCGAACATCGACGTCCG 60 (34) (Ref. 24) GGACGTAGCGAAATCGGGGTTC p73 unmethylated ATCACAACCCCAAACATCAACATCCA 60 (34) (Ref. 24) AGGGGATGTAGTGAAATTGGGGTTT p16 methylated TTATTAGAGGGTGGGGCGGATCGC 60 (34) (Ref. 19) GACCCCGAACCGCGACCGTAA p16 unmethylated TTATTAGAGGGTGGGGTGGATTGT 60 (34) (Ref. 19) CAACCCCAAACCACAACCATAA (21). These findings suggest that aberrant methylation may have to UpG without modifying methylated sites. This allows their a role in leukemic relapse. Knowledge of the dynamics of differentiation by allele specific PCR (MSP), restriction diges- methylation patterns at the time of relapse may have important tion (COBRA) or sequencing. Bisulfite treatment of genomic implications, including the understanding of cellular clonal DNA was performed as described (23). DNA was extracted changes during disease progression, the development of assays using standard phenol-chloroform methods after samples had to detect MRD, and the development of targeted therapies using been deparaffinized using xylene and ethanol followed by di- hypomethylating agents for high-risk patients. gestion with proteinase K. After extraction, 2 g of DNA were We have previously studied the methylation status of ER, used for bisulfite treatment. DNA was denatured in 0.2 N NaOH MDR1, p73, p15, p16, THBS1, THBS2, CD10, c-abl, and Myod at 37°C for 10 min and incubated with 3 M sodium bisulfite at in 80 patients with ALL (6). We have selected five of them, ER, 50°C for 16 h. DNA was then purified using the Wizard cleanup MDR1, p73, p15, and p16, to study the methylation patterns system (Promega) and desulfonated with 0.3 N NaOH at 25°C both at the time of initial presentation and at relapse in 25 for 5 min. DNA was then precipitated with ammonium acetate patients with relapsed ALL who had achieved complete remis- and ethanol, washed with 70% ethanol, dried, and resuspended sion after initial induction chemotherapy. Our results indicate in H2O. that the methylation patterns of patients with relapsed ALL are Primer Design. Primer sequences, coordinates, Gen- stable in a majority of patients, but that a subgroup of patients Bank accession numbers, number of expected restriction acquire new methylation changes, in particular of genes in- fragments, and PCR conditions are shown in Table 1. For p73 volved in cell cycle regulation. and p16, we used MSP as described elsewhere (19, 24). For p15, MDR1, and ER, we used COBRA (25). To minimize MATERIALS AND METHODS overestimation of methylated alleles when using this method, Samples. Paraffin-embedded bone marrow biopsies from the following points were followed: (a) primers were de- 25 adult patients with ALL obtained at the time of original signed to contain a minimum number of CpG dinucleotides in diagnosis and at first relapse have been analyzed in this study. their sequence to avoid biased amplification of methylated Patients were selected from a cohort of 80 patients studied alleles. If primers contained CpG sites, they were designed to previously (6). Selection was based on evidence of relapse and amplify methylated and unmethylated equally (with a mix- sample availability (both at initial presentation and relapse). All ture of C or T used for the sense strand or G or A for patients had been treated with the hyper-CVAD chemotherapy antisense primers); (b) primers were designed to contain a program (protocol DM92-048) at the University of Texas M. D. maximum number of thymidines converted from cytosines to Anderson Cancer Center (22). Patient characteristics and results avoid amplification of the nonconverted genomic sequence; of this program have been reported elsewhere (22). Consent for (c) amplification of genomic DNA not treated with bisulfite sample collection was obtained from all patients following was always carried out to monitor lack of nonspecific ampli- institutional guidelines. This study was reviewed and approved fication; (d) primers were designed to be within 300 bp of by the Institutional Review Board.