Increased p53 Acetylation By SIRT1 Inhibition Is Required for Optimal Activation of p53 Activity and Significantly Enhances the Ability of HDM2 Inhibitors to Target CML LSC

BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) are effective in inducing remissions and prolonging survival in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients, but do not eliminate leukemia stem cells (LSCs) that are responsible for establishment, maintenance and recurrence of the disease. We have shown that the NAD-dependent SIRT1 deacetylase is overexpressed in CML LSC (Li et al., Cancer Cell, 21:266, 2013). SIRT1 participates in the maintenance, growth and treatment resistance of CML LSC by deacetylation and inhibition of the p53 pathway that regulates cell cycle and apoptosis. Inhibition of SIRT1 using RNAi and the small molecule SIRT1 inhibitor Tenovin-6 (TV-6) inhibits growth and survival of CML LSC by itself and results in enhanced targeting of LSC in combination with TKI treatment. The effects of SIRT1 inhibition are related at least in part to enhanced acetylation of the p53 protein associated with enhanced p53 transcriptional activity. Here we examined the efficacy of an alternative strategy to activate p53, using inhibition of the p53 regulatory protein HDM2, in activating p53 transcriptional activity and inhibiting CML LSC growth and survival compared to SIRT1 inhibition. Nutlin-3 (Nut-3) is a small molecule HDM2 inhibitor that disrupts the p53-HDM2 interaction which has proceeded to clinical trials. Treatment of CML CP CD34⁺ cells with Nut-3 (1, 2, 5µM) increased expression of the p53 target genes p21 (associated with cell cycle arrest) and NOXA and PIG3 (associated with apoptosis), inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis to a significantly lesser extent than TV-6 (1, 2 µM) (Nut 5 µM vs TV 2 µM ; p<0.0003) . However, Nutlin-3 enhanced p53 target gene expression and inhibited proliferation and survival of normal CD34⁺ cells to a similar extent as CML CD34⁺ cells. This was in contrast to TV-6 which although inhibiting proliferation of both CML and normal CD34⁺ cells, selectively induced apoptosis in CML compared to normal CD34⁺ cells. Treatment of CML CD34⁺ cells with the combination of Nut-3 (2, 5µM) and TV-6 (1µM) significantly increased the expression of p53 target genes (p21, PIG3, NOXA), and enhanced apoptosis of CML CD34+ cells compared to Nut-3 or TV-6 alone. 32D-BCR-ABL cells transduced with lentivirus vectors expressing p53 shRNA demonstrated significantly reduced apoptosis following treatment with the combination of Nut-3 and TV-6 compared to cells expressing control shRNA, indicating that the effects of this treatment are p53 dependent. Our results indicate that enhancement of p53 acetylation by SIRT1 inhibition is required for optimal activation of p53 transcriptional activity and induction of apoptosis in CML LSC. These results further support SIRT1 as a valid therapeutic target in CML, and suggest that addition of SIRT1 inhibitors may significantly enhance the ability of HDM2 inhibitors to eliminate CML LSC.

Table 1 : Effects of Nutlin-3, Tenovin-6 or combination on the expression of apoptosis/cell cycle arrest related-genes, apoptosis and proliferation in cord blood and CML CD34⁺ cells.

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SEM values ; significance, compared to controls: ***p<0.001. ****p<0.0001.

Key words : Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML), hematopoietic stem cells, p53, SIRT1.