Genetic inactivation of the polycomb repressive complex 2 in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

P Ntziachristos, A Tsirigos, PV Vlierberghe, J Nedjic… - Nature medicine, 2012 - nature.com
P Ntziachristos, A Tsirigos, PV Vlierberghe, J Nedjic, T Trimarchi, MS Flaherty…
Nature medicine, 2012nature.com
T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an immature hematopoietic malignancy
driven mainly by oncogenic activation of NOTCH1 signaling. In this study we report the
presence of loss-of-function mutations and deletions of the EZH2 and SUZ12 genes, which
encode crucial components of the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2),, in 25% of T-
ALLs. To further study the role of PRC2 in T-ALL, we used NOTCH1-dependent mouse
models of the disease, as well as human T-ALL samples, and combined locus-specific and …
T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an immature hematopoietic malignancy driven mainly by oncogenic activation of NOTCH1 signaling. In this study we report the presence of loss-of-function mutations and deletions of the EZH2 and SUZ12 genes, which encode crucial components of the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2),, in 25% of T-ALLs. To further study the role of PRC2 in T-ALL, we used NOTCH1-dependent mouse models of the disease, as well as human T-ALL samples, and combined locus-specific and global analysis of NOTCH1-driven epigenetic changes. These studies demonstrated that activation of NOTCH1 specifically induces loss of the repressive mark Lys27 trimethylation of histone 3 (H3K27me3) by antagonizing the activity of PRC2. These studies suggest a tumor suppressor role for PRC2 in human leukemia and suggest a hitherto unrecognized dynamic interplay between oncogenic NOTCH1 and PRC2 function for the regulation of gene expression and cell transformation.
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