NOTCH1 directly regulates c-MYC and activates a feed-forward-loop transcriptional network promoting leukemic cell growth

T Palomero, WK Lim, DT Odom… - Proceedings of the …, 2006 - National Acad Sciences
T Palomero, WK Lim, DT Odom, ML Sulis, PJ Real, A Margolin, KC Barnes, J O'Neil…
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2006National Acad Sciences
The NOTCH1 signaling pathway directly links extracellular signals with transcriptional
responses in the cell nucleus and plays a critical role during T cell development and in the
pathogenesis over 50% of human T cell lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cases. However,
little is known about the transcriptional programs activated by NOTCH1. Using an integrative
systems biology approach we show that NOTCH1 controls a feed-forward-loop
transcriptional network that promotes cell growth. Inhibition of NOTCH1 signaling in T-ALL …
The NOTCH1 signaling pathway directly links extracellular signals with transcriptional responses in the cell nucleus and plays a critical role during T cell development and in the pathogenesis over 50% of human T cell lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cases. However, little is known about the transcriptional programs activated by NOTCH1. Using an integrative systems biology approach we show that NOTCH1 controls a feed-forward-loop transcriptional network that promotes cell growth. Inhibition of NOTCH1 signaling in T-ALL cells led to a reduction in cell size and elicited a gene expression signature dominated by down-regulated biosynthetic pathway genes. By integrating gene expression array and ChIP-on-chip data, we show that NOTCH1 directly activates multiple biosynthetic routes and induces c-MYC gene expression. Reverse engineering of regulatory networks from expression profiles showed that NOTCH1 and c-MYC govern two directly interconnected transcriptional programs containing common target genes that together regulate the growth of primary T-ALL cells. These results identify c-MYC as an essential mediator of NOTCH1 signaling and integrate NOTCH1 activation with oncogenic signaling pathways upstream of c-MYC.
National Acad Sciences