Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptor Type Γ Is a Functional Tumor Suppressor Gene Specifically Downregulated in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
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Published OnlineFirst October 19, 2010; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-10-0258 Tumor and Stem Cell Biology Cancer Research Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptor Type γ Is a Functional Tumor Suppressor Gene Specifically Downregulated in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Marco Della Peruta1, Giovanni Martinelli4, Elisabetta Moratti1, Davide Pintani1, Marzia Vezzalini1, Andrea Mafficini1,3, Tiziana Grafone4, Ilaria Iacobucci4, Simona Soverini4, Marco Murineddu5, Fabrizio Vinante2, Cristina Tecchio2, Giovanna Piras5, Attilio Gabbas5, Maria Monne5, and Claudio Sorio1,3 Abstract Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is the most common myeloproliferative disease. Protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type γ (PTPRG) is a tumor suppressor gene and a myeloid cell marker expressed by CD34+ cells. Downregulation of PTPRG increases colony formation in the PTPRG-positive megakaryocytic cell lines MEG-01 and LAMA-84 but has no effect in the PTPRG-negative cell lines K562 and KYO-1. Its over- expression has an oncosuppressive effect in all these cell lines and is associated with myeloid differentiation and inhibition of BCR/ABL-dependent signaling. The intracellular domain of PTPRG directly interacts with BCR/ABL and CRKL, but not with signal transducers and activators of transcription 5. PTPRG is downregulated at the mRNA and protein levels in leukocytes of CML patients in both peripheral blood and bone marrow, including CD34+ cells, and is reexpressed following molecular remission of disease. Reexpression was associated with a loss of methylation of a CpG island of PTPRG promoter occurring in 55% of the patients analyzed. In K562 cell line, the DNA hypomethylating agent 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine induced PTPRG expression and caused an inhibition of colony formation, partially reverted by downregulation of PTPRG expression. These findings establish, for the first time, PTPRG as a tumor suppressor gene involved in the pathogenesis of CML, suggesting its use as a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target. Cancer Res; 70(21); 8896–906. ©2010 AACR. Introduction For this reason, much attention has been focused on naturally occurring negative regulators of tyrosine kinase Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), also known as signaling: the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) family chronic myeloid or chronic myelocytic leukemia, is a malig- of enzymes. nant cancer of the bone marrow myeloid lineage. It ac- The human PTP family contains 107 members, 38 of which counts for ∼15% to 20% of all cases of leukemia (1–1.5 belong to the phosphotyrosine-specific (“classic”)PTPsub- cases per 100,000 population per year; ref. 1) and originates family (subdivided in receptor- and nonreceptor-like types) from a pluripotential stem cell in which a 9:22 translocation and 61 belong to the so-called “dual-specific phosphatases.” results in the production of BCR/ABL fusion protein. This To date, only two tyrosine phosphatases, PTP1B and SHP-1, has a constitutive tyrosine kinase activity and deregulates are known to dephosphorylate and partially inhibit the trans- signal transduction pathways, leading to leukemia (2). Phos- formation potential of BCR/ABL (4, 5). Serine-threonine phorylation of key residues is required for the full transform- phosphatase PP2A is inhibited in blast crisis CML (6). These ing activity of BCR/ABL (3). PTPs belong to the nonreceptor class of enzymes. Recently, Authors' Affiliations: 1Department of Pathology and Diagnostics and performed flow cytometry. I. Iacobucci: BCR/ABL analysis. S. Soverini: 2Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Verona; management of clinical data (Bologna). M. Murineddu: flow cytometry 3ARC-Net Research Center, University of Verona, Policlinico G.B. Rossi, and patient selection. F. Vinante: patient selection and clinical information Verona, Italy; 4Institute of Hematology and Medical Oncology, «Lorenzo (Verona). C. Tecchio: performed research. A. Mafficini: performed flow e Ariosto Seragnoli», University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; and 5Centro cytometry. G. Piras: statistical analysis. A. Gabbas: provided clinical data. di Diagnostica Biomolecolare e Citogenetica Emato-Oncologica, “San M. Monne: patient selection and clinical information, methylation studies Francesco” Hospital, ASL3, Nuoro, Italy in patients (Nuoro). C. Sorio: designed research, wrote manuscript. Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Cancer Research Corresponding Author: Claudio Sorio, Department of Pathology and Online (http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/). Diagnostics, General Pathology Section, University of Verona, Strada Author contribution statement: M. Della Peruta: designed and performed Le Grazie 8, 37134 Verona, Italy. Phone: 39-45-8027688; Fax: 39-45- experiments, analyzed data. G. Martinelli: patient selection and clinical 8027127; E-mail: [email protected]. information (Bologna). E. Moratti: performed experiments, coimmunopre- doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-10-0258 cipitation studies. D. Pintani: performed clonogenic assays. M. Vezzalini: QPCR analysis, clonogenic and proliferation assays. T. Grafone: ©2010 American Association for Cancer Research. 8896 Cancer Res; 70(21) November 1, 2010 Downloaded from cancerres.aacrjournals.org on September 28, 2021. © 2010 American Association for Cancer Research. Published OnlineFirst October 19, 2010; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-10-0258 PTPRG in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia PTPROt, a receptor-like PTP, has been found to interfere be in complete cytogenetic remission (CCR) based on the with BCR/ABL signaling in K562 cells (7). BIOMED 2 standardized protocols. PTP receptor type γ (PTPRG) is a member of the receptor- like PTPs (8), is expressed in myeloid cells, including CD34+ Cells precursors, and can affect hematopoietic differentiation K562 (22) and MEG-01 (23) were from American Type (9–11). It is a candidate tumor suppressor gene in solid Culture Collection; KYO-1 (24) and LAMA-84 (25) were from tumors (12–14) owing to its reduced expression in ovarian, DSMZ. HEK293 was purchased from Invitrogen. K562 transfec- breast, and lung tumors (15, 16). Somatic mutations and epi- tants were selected, adding 0.50 mg/mL G418 (Invitrogen) to genetic silencing were reported (17–21). the culture medium. All were characterized by cytogenetic anal- Here, we show that PTPRG acts as a functional tumor ysis and antigen expression. Human samples were derived from suppressor gene in CML, interacting with BCR/ABL and in- Ficoll-purified cells (mRNA analysis) or whole blood samples hibiting downstream signaling events. PTPRG is specifically (flow cytometry analysis). downregulated in peripheral blood and bone marrow leuko- cytes of CML patients, at least in part by a mechanism Cell transfection and selection of CML cell lines involving hypermethylation of a PTPRG CpG island located Full-length (FL) human PTPRG (26) and antisense (AS) in the 5′ untranslated region. These findings imply that cDNA and cell lines were described (10, 27). The D1028A PTPRG might represent a potential diagnostic and thera- PTPRG cDNA was obtained by site-directed mutagenesis, peutic target in CML. wherein the Asp 1028 codon was replaced with an Ala codon (NP_002832.3) and verified by sequencing. Materials and Methods To avoid the source of error associated with clonal variation within cell lines, we selected a K562 clone (named B4) Tissue samples that maintains the capability to differentiate when treated Patients were recruited at the hematology departments of with the well-known inducers sodium butyrate and hemin Bologna, Nuoro, and Verona, Italy among newly diagnosed (28, 29) and performed all the transfection and selection CML patients during the first chronic phase. Presence of processes starting from this well-characterized clone. the Philadelphia chromosome and p210BCR-ABL rearrange- ment was a prerequisite for enrollment. CML samples were Transfection of HEK293 cells taken at diagnosis and after the initiation of therapy with HEK293 cells were transfected with FL cDNA coding for imatinib mesylate (IM). Age- and sex-matched samples p210BCR/ABL cDNA in pLNL 5LX cytomegalovirus, derived from from individuals diagnosed as not affected by malignant pLNL-XHC (30), kindly provided by Dr. Paolo Vigneri (Univer- disease were used as a reference group. Analysis of the sity of Catania, Italy). FL human PTPRG cDNA and D1028A CD34+ population for the group of patients in molecular PTPRG cDNA were previously described. Transfection was remission was not possible, as these samples were not performed with Lipofectamine 2000 reagent (Invitrogen) ac- available at the time of evaluation. Table 1 reports clinical cording to the manufacturer's instructions using 1.5 μgplasmid data. Written informed consent was obtained in accordance DNA (for single transfection) or 1 + 1 μgplasmidDNA(fordouble with the Declaration of Helsinki. Cytogenetic response was transfection) following the manufacturer's instructions. Cultures classified as complete, and the patients were considered to were cultured for 48 hours, washed with cold TBS, and lysed. Table 1. Clinical data of patients Diagnosis (n = 22) Remission (n =8) Median (range) Median (range) Age 54.12 (47–63) 60.42 (33–84) Female (%) 12.5 33.4 Bcr-Abl/Abl (%) 69.13 (30.84–100) 0.10 (0–1) Hemoglobin level (g/dL) 10.99 (7–13.8) 11.3 (5.90–15.5) Platelets (×109/L) 346.25 (6–589) 193.7 (88–291) WBC (×109/L) 218.75 (137–296) 4.77 (0.13–7.73) Peripheral blood blasts (%) 4.4 (2–6) 0 Peripheral blood basophils (%) 7.6 (0–15) 0.006 (0.002–0.01) BM blasts (%) 3.2 (1–4) 0 Palpable splenomegaly