IRF8 Is an AML-Specific Susceptibility Factor That Regulates Signaling Pathways and Proliferation of AML Cells.
Franziska LissMiriam FrechYing WangGavin GielSabrina FischerClara SimonLisa Marie WeberAndrea NistThorsten StieweAndreas NeubauerAndreas BurchertRobert LiefkePublished in: Cancers (2021)
Personalized treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that target individual aberrations strongly improved the survival of AML patients. However, AML is still one of the most lethal cancer diseases of the 21st century, demonstrating the need to find novel drug targets and to explore alternative treatment strategies. Upon investigation of public perturbation data, we identified the transcription factor IRF8 as a novel AML-specific susceptibility gene in humans. IRF8 is upregulated in a subset of AML cells and its deletion leads to impaired proliferation in those cells. Consistently, high IRF8 expression is associated with poorer patients' prognoses. Combining gene expression changes upon IRF8 deletion and the genome-wide localization of IRF8 in the AML cell line MV4-11, we demonstrate that IRF8 directly regulates key signaling molecules, such as the kinases SRC and FAK, the transcription factors RUNX1 and IRF5, and the cell cycle regulator Cyclin D1. IRF8 loss impairs AML-driving signaling pathways, including the WNT, Chemokine, and VEGF signaling pathways. Additionally, many members of the focal adhesion pathway showed reduced expression, providing a putative link between high IRF8 expression and poor prognosis. Thus, this study suggests that IRF8 could serve as a biomarker and potential molecular target in a subset of human AMLs.
Keyphrases
- acute myeloid leukemia
- poor prognosis
- dendritic cells
- transcription factor
- induced apoptosis
- signaling pathway
- cell cycle
- allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
- gene expression
- genome wide
- cell cycle arrest
- long non coding rna
- end stage renal disease
- newly diagnosed
- ejection fraction
- cell proliferation
- stem cells
- pi k akt
- dna methylation
- chronic kidney disease
- oxidative stress
- epithelial mesenchymal transition
- peritoneal dialysis
- cell death
- copy number
- machine learning
- immune response
- risk assessment
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- candida albicans
- drug induced
- combination therapy
- emergency department
- dna binding
- smoking cessation
- genome wide identification
- binding protein
- induced pluripotent stem cells
- squamous cell