Cooperation Between Aid and the Rag1/Rag2 V(D)J Recombinase Drives Clonal Evolution of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

In many cases, childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) can be retraced to a recurrent genetic lesion in utero which establishes a pre-leukemic clone. The TEL-AML1 fusion gene for instance, arises prenatally and defines the most frequent subtype of childhood ALL. Strikingly, ∼1 of 100 healthy newborns carry a TEL-AML1 pre-leukemic clone, but only less than 1% of these children eventually develop leukemia. Encounter of infectious antigen leads to activation of the mutator enzyme AID in mature B cells. While AID is required for somatic hypermutation and class switching during late stages of B cell development, its pre-mature activation may be deleterious. The underlying questions for this project were: (1) how are B cells safeguarded from pre-mature AID expression during their early development and (2) whether pre-mature AID expression during early B cell development is deleterious in the sense that it promotes the clonal evolution of a pre-leukemic B cell clone in the bone marrow.

Studying gene expression in a clinical trial for children with high risk pre-B ALL (COG P9906; n=207), we found that high expression levels of AID at the time of diagnosis is predictive of poor overall survival and a higher frequency of leukemia relapse. These findings suggest that AID may be a contributing factor to the clonal evolution of childhood pre-B ALL. Previous work by Michael Lieber's group proposed cooperation of AID and the V(D)J recombinase Rag1/Rag2 as a key mechanism leading to the acquisition of chromosomal translocations in human B cell malignancies (Tsai et al., 2008). Activity of Rag1/Rag2 V(D)J recombinase and AID is segregated to early and late stages of B cell development, respectively. However, we found that experimental withdrawal of IL7 receptor (IL7R) signaling in pre-B cells not only activates Rag1/Rag2 expression and V(D)J recombinase but also rendered pre-B cells responsive to antigen (LPS) encounter with strong upregulation of AID. We found that upon withdrawal of IL7, transcription of AID and Rag1/Rag2 is activated by the same elements through a Pten/FoxO-dependent pathway. To test whether IL7R signaling also negatively regulates AID activation in human pre-B cells, we performed a comprehensive analysis of human B cell development in bone marrow samples from two children carrying deleterious mutations of the IL7RA and IL2RG genes encoding the two chains of the human IL7R. As opposed to normal human pre-B cells, pre-B cells from IL7RA and IL2RG-mutant patients carried somatically mutated immunoglobulin genes consistent with aberrant expression of AID in these cells. Based on these observations, we propose that Fraction D pre-B cells represent a subset of increased genetic vulnerability owing to concomitant expression of both AID and Rag1/Rag2.

To test whether the vulnerability of Fraction D pre-B cells is relevant in the clonal evolution of childhood ALL, we challenged pre-B cells carrying the TEL-AML1 fusion gene with 5 consecutive cycles of IL7 withdrawal (−IL7) and LPS stimulation (+LPS). To distinguish between the potential contribution of AID and Rag1/Rag2 to secondary genetic lesions, -IL7/+LPS-challenges were performed with wildtype pre-B cells, AID^−/−, Rag1^−/− and AID^−/− Rag1^−/− double knockout pre-B cells. TEL-AML1-bearing pre-B cells were labeled with firefly luciferase and then 25 million cells were injected into 7 recipient animals per group. While wildtype TEL-AML1 pre-B cells that went through 5 rounds of -IL7/+LPS-challenge caused leukemia in all recipient mice, TEL-AML1 pre-B cells lacking either AID or Rag1 failed to give rise to full-blown leukemia in transplant recipients.

While one in 100 newborns carry the TEL-AML1 fusion molecule, the mechanisms that lead to the acquisition of critical secondary genetic lesions are not known. Here, we report a novel, IL7R/Stat5-dependent mechanism by which pre-B cells are rendered non-responsive to LPS-dependent upregulation of AID. We propose that Fraction D pre-B cells represent a subset of increased natural genetic vulnerability in the context of concomitant activativity of AID and Rag1/Rag2. Frequent exposure to infectious antigens (e.g. LPS) in this constellation may propagate clonal evolution towards full-blown leukemia.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.