Reduced Activity of the OCT-1 Protein in Primitive CML Cells: A Likely Determinant of Stem Cell Resistance in Imatinib Treated CML Patients

Despite cytogenetic and molecular remissions, residual chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells persist in the primitive CD34+ compartment in the majority of imatinib treated patients. It has been demonstrated that CD34+ CML cells have a reduced sensitivity to imatinib induced apoptosis. Factors which may contribute to this reduced sensitivity are reduced dependence on BCR-ABL, an increase in BCR-ABL transcripts, increased expression of efflux proteins or decreased expression of drug influx proteins. Our previous studies show that a patient’s intrinsic sensitivity to imatinib-induced kinase inhibition (IC50) is related to the intracellular uptake and retention (IUR) of imatinib in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The organic cation transporter 1 (OCT-1) is the major active influx transporter for imatinib in these cells, and the functional activity of this protein (determined using functional inhibition of OCT-1, in the IUR assay) directly correlates with molecular response to imatinib. In the present study we investigated the role that OCT-1 plays in stem cell resistance to imatinib.

Primitive CD34+ and mature CD34− cells were isolated from CML patients and normal individuals using magnetic cell sorting. CML CD34+ cells had a significantly lower IUR_imatinib than that of CML CD34− cells (Table 1). The addition of the OCT-1 inhibitor, prazosin (100μM), eliminated this difference in IUR (Table 1), indicating that variation in IUR_imatinib is due to variation in the functional activity of the OCT-1 protein. In addition, the OCT-1 Activity (Table 1) and OCT-1 mRNA expression (expressed as % of BCR: mean CD34+=0.25; CD34−=4.9, p=0.040, n=10) was significantly lower in CML CD34+ cells compared with CML CD34− cells. These differences in IUR_imatinib and OCT-1 activity between CD34+ and CD34− cells were not observed in normal individuals (Table 1), suggesting this phenomenon is specific to leukemic cells. Furthermore, we isolated the more primitive compartment, CD34+38− cells and less primitive CD34+38+ cells in 4 CML patients. The CD34+38− cells demonstrated a 13% reduction in IUR_imatinib and a 41% reduction in OCT-1 activity compared with CD34+38+ cells. These data suggest a reduced IUR mediated by low OCT-1 function and/or expression may play a role in the resistance of CML stem cells to imatinib.

Table 1: The IUR of 2μM imatinib expressed as ng/200,000 cells (standard deviation)

Increased expression of efflux transporters of imatinib (i.e. ABCB1 and ABCG2) has been suggested as an important mechanism for drug resistance. The effect of an ABCB1 inhibitor (PSC833) and ABCG2 inhibitor (Ko143) was assessed in CD34+ cells from 3 CML patients, using the IUR assay. Neither of these drugs had any effect on the IUR_imatinib in CML CD34+ cells. Additionally the mRNA expression of ABCB1 did not differ between CML CD34+ and CD34− cells (expressed as a % of BCR: mean CD34+=33.7; CD34−=33.77, p=0.064, n=10). These data suggest that alterations in imatinib influx (via OCT-1) are more critical for development of stem cell resistance rather than differences in efflux.

We have previously demonstrated that, unlike imatinib, the OCT-1 protein is not involved in nilotinib transport, as the addition of OCT-1 inhibitors does not alter IUR_nilotinib in patients. Assessing the IUR of nilotinib in CD34+ and CD34− CML cells reveals no significant difference between the two populations (Table 2). Additionally, the IUR_nilotinib is significantly higher than IUR_imatinib in CML CD34+ cells (Table 2). In summary, the reduced OCT-1 mediated uptake of imatinib in more primitive, CD34+ CML cells may result in inadequate kinase inhibition and contribute to stem cell resistance in CML. Since nilotinib uptake into CML CD34+ cells is not impaired in the same manner as imatinib, more substantial depletion of the primitive CML cells may be achieved.

Table 2: The IUR of 2μM imatinib and nilotinib in the same 11 CML patients. Expressed as ng/200,000 cells (standard deviation)