1. Academic Validation
  2. Germline variant GFI1-36N affects DNA repair and sensitizes AML cells to DNA damage and repair therapy

Germline variant GFI1-36N affects DNA repair and sensitizes AML cells to DNA damage and repair therapy

  • Blood. 2023 Sep 26:blood.2022015752. doi: 10.1182/blood.2022015752.
Daria Frank 1 Pradeep Kumar Patnana 2 Jan Vorwerk 1 Lianghao Mao 3 Lavanya Mokada Gopal 2 Noelle Jung 2 Thorben Hennig 3 Leo Ruhnke 4 Joris Maximillian Frenz 2 Maithreyan Kuppusamy 3 Robert J Autry 5 Lanying Wei 2 Kaiyan Sun 1 Helal Ahmed 6 Axel Künstner 7 Hauke Busch 8 Heiko Müller 9 Stephan Hutter 9 Gregor Hoermann 9 Longlong Liu 10 Xiaoqing Xie 11 Yahya Al-Matary 12 Subbaiah Chary Nimmagadda 13 Fiorella Charles Cano 14 Michael Heuser 14 Felicitas R Thol 15 Gudrun Göhring 14 Doris Steinemann 14 Jürgen Thomale 16 Theo Leitner 6 Anja Fischer 17 Roland Rad 17 Christoph Röllig 18 Heidi Altmann 19 Desiree Kunadt 19 Wolfgang E Berdel 20 Jana Hüve 21 Felix Neumann 22 Jürgen Klingauf 22 Virginie Calderon 22 Bertram Opalka 23 Ulrich Dührsen 24 Frank Rosenbauer 24 Martin Dugas 23 Julian Varghese 24 H Christian H Reinhardt 22 Nikolas von Bubnoff 22 Tarik Möröy 23 Georg Lenz 25 Aarif M N Batcha 8 Marianna Giorgi 23 Murugan Selvam 25 Eunice S Wang 25 Shannon K McWeeney 26 Jeffrey W Tyner 27 Friedrich Stölzel 25 Matthias Mann 23 Ashok Kumar Jayavelu 25 Cyrus Khandanpour 25
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
  • 2 University Münster, Germany.
  • 3 German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
  • 4 Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Dresden, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany, Dresden, Germany.
  • 5 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Heidelberg, Tennessee, Germany.
  • 6 University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein Campus Lübeck and University of Lübeck, Luebeck, Germany.
  • 7 University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
  • 8 Medical Systems Biology Group, Luebeck Institute of Experimental Dermatology, University of Luebeck, Luebeck and Institute for Cardiogenetics, University of Luebeck, Luebeck, Germany, Germany.
  • 9 MLL Munich Leukemia Laboratory, Munich, Germany.
  • 10 Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
  • 11 University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany.
  • 12 University Hospital Essen.
  • 13 University Hospital Luebeck, Luebeck, Germany.
  • 14 German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Partner Site Munich, Germany.
  • 15 Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
  • 16 University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany.
  • 17 Technical University of Munich, München, Germany.
  • 18 Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany, Dresden, Germany.
  • 19 Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany, Dresden, Germany.
  • 20 Universitaetsklinikum Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
  • 21 University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
  • 22 Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal, Canada.
  • 23 Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry Munich, Germany.
  • 24 University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
  • 25 University Hospital of Muenster, Germany.
  • 26 Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States.
  • 27 Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland, Oregon, United States.
Abstract

Growth Factor Independence 1 (GFI1) is a DNA-binding transcription factor and a key regulator of haematopoiesis. GFI1-36N is a germline variant causing a change of serine (S) to asparagine (N) at position 36. We previously reported that the GFI1-36N allele has a prevalence of 10-15% among patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and 5-7% among healthy Caucasians and promotes the development of this disease. Using a multi-omics approach, we show here that GFI1-36N expression is associated with increased frequencies of chromosomal aberrations, mutational burden and mutational signatures in both murine and human AML and impedes homologous recombination-directed (HR) DNA repair in leukemic cells. GFI1-36N exhibits impaired binding to N-Myc downstream-regulated gene 1 (Ndrg1) regulatory elements, causing decreased NDRG1 levels, which leads to a reduction of O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) expression levels illustrated by both transcriptome and proteome analyses. Targeting MGMT via temozolomide, a DNA alkylating drug, and HR via olaparib, a PARP1 Inhibitor, caused synthetic lethality in human and murine AML samples expressing GFI1-36N, whereas the effects were insignificant in non-malignant GFI1-36S or GFI1-36N cells. In addition, mice transplanted with GFI1-36N leukemic cells treated with a combination of temozolomide and olaparib had significantly longer AML-free survival than mice transplanted with GFI1-36S leukemic cells. This suggests that reduced MGMT expression leaves GFI1-36N leukemic cells particularly vulnerable to DNA damage initiating chemotherapeutics. Our data provide critical insights into novel options to treat AML patients carrying the GFI1-36N variant.

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