PARP Inhibitor Selectively Induces Cell Death in E2A-Hlf Positive Leukemia

Background: Defects in homologous recombination repair (HRR) have long been known to contribute to genomic instability leading to tumor development. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) exerts various cell biological effects, such as maintenance of genomic stability, energy metabolism and cell death. PARP is indispensable in DNA repair machinery, especially in base excision repair (BER). PARP inhibition convert DNA double strand breaks from DNA single strand breaks induced by alkylating agents. These DNA double strand breaks can be repaired by HRR. Therefore, PARP inhibitor induces synthetic lethality in HRR defective cancer cells. Such lethality was successfully shown in BRCA1 or 2 mutated breast cancers. However, only a limited study has been performed other than breast cancers. Some tumors including hematological malignancies are defective in HRR function leading to a possibility to be sensitized to PARP inhibitor.

Methods: Sensitivity to PARP inhibitor was screened using 28 leukemia cell lines. HRR activity was measured by DR-GFP HRR assay. Expression of proteins involves HRR was evaluated by cDNA microarray analysis and western blotting.

Results: E2A-HLF positive leukemia showed susceptibility to PARP inhibitor. This experiment suggests that expression of E2A-HLF chimeric messenger RNA sensitize the leukemic cell to PARP inhibitor. To elucidate whether E2A-HLF genuinely sensitize the cell for PARP inhibition, E2A-HLF was transduced into PARP inhibitor resistant Burkitt cell line, Daudi, using retrovirus. Compared with mock infected Daudi cell, E2A-HLF expressed Daudi cell showed increased sensitivity to PARP inhibitor. This experiment suggests that E2A-HLF expressed cell is defective HRR pathway. To test this hypothesis, HRR assay using DR-GFP construct was employed. HRR between the two nonfunctional GFP genes to generate a functional GFP gene can be triggered by transient transfection of the I-SceI expression vector, which introduces a DNA double-strand break (DSB) in one of the two GFP genes. HRR proficiency can be determined by the number of cells expressing the GFP protein. DR-GFP HRR assay exhibited defect of HRR function in E2A-HLF expressed cell. Interestingly, expression of BRCA1 was decreased in E2A-HLF transfected cell, which presumably link with decreased HRR activity.

Conclusions: Increased sensitivity to PARP inhibitor in E2A-HLF positive leukemia was caused by decreased HRR activity by E2A-HLF expression. PARP inhibitor will be a novel therapeutic approach for refractory leukemia, especially with E2A-HLF translocation. While PARP inhibitor monotherapy is an attractive proposition for treating such as HRR defective E2A-HLF expressed leukemia, combination of HRR inhibitor will be a universal strategy for various types of leukemia.