Pax5 Haploinsufficiency Cooperates with BCR-ABL1 to Induce Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Genes regulating B lymphoid development are somatically mutated in over 40% of B-progenitor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cases, with the most common targets being the transcription factors PAX5, IKZF1 (encoding Ikaros), and EBF1. Notably, BCR-ABL1 ALL is characterized by a high frequency of mutations of IKZF1 (85%), PAX5 (55%), and CDKN2A/B (encoding INK4/ARF, 55%), suggesting that these lesions cooperate with BCR-ABL1 in lymphoid leukemogenesis. To examine cooperativity between Pax5 haploinsufficiency and BCR-ABL1, we transplanted Pax5^+/+ and Pax5^+/− bone marrow cells transduced with MSCV-GFP-IRES-p185 BCR-ABL1 retrovirus into lethally irradiated wild-type C57BL6 recipient mice. Mice transplanted with BCR-ABL1 transduced Pax5^+/− marrow developed B progenitor cell ALL with significantly higher penetrance and decreased latency when compared to animals transplanted with BCR-ABL1 transduced Pax5^+/+ marrow (median survival 36 vs. 60 days, P=0.0003). The latency of tumor onset was further decreased in the presence of Arf haploinsufficiency (Pax5^+/+Arf^+/+ 60 days, Pax5^+/−Arf^+/+ 36 days, Pax5^+/−Arf^+/− 21 days, P<0.0001). All leukemias were of B cell lineage and were transplantable to secondary recipients. In addition, Southern blot analysis revealed the Pax5^+/−Arf^+/+ leukemias to be monoclonal, where as the Pax5^+/−Arf^+/− leukemias were oligoclonal. Importantly, the Pax5^+/− leukemias exhibited a more immature B cell immunophenotype than Pax5 wild type leukemias. Moreover, a proportion of the Pax5^+/− leukemias (19%) exhibited a very immature early pro B cell immunophenotype (Cd19⁻, Bp1⁻), suggesting the possibility of acquired lesions in other key regulators of normal B cell differentiation. To explore this possibility and to identify the total complement of genetic lesions required to generate overt leukemia, we performed genome-wide copy number analysis on 30 murine leukemias (15 Pax5^+/+, 15 Pax5^+/−) using a custom CGH microarray (Agilent) that interrogated 477,000 autosomal loci, including 18,000 probes covering 20 genes encoding B lymphoid transcription factors and genes targeted by recurring copy number abnormalities (CNAs) in human BCR-ABL1 ALL (Bcl11a, Cdkn2a, Ebf1, Ikzf1, Ikzf2, Ikzf3, Il7r, Lef1, Mdm2, Mef2c, Myb, Pax5, Pten, Rb1, Sfpi1, Sox4, Stat5a, Tcf3, Tcf4, and Trp53). This analysis identified focal recurring CNAs in multiple genes including Cdkn2a/b, Ebf1, Ikzf1, Ikzf2, Ikzf3, and Pax5, each of which is a target of mutation in human B-ALL. Overall, there were on average 3.5 CNAs in Pax5^+/+ leukemias versus 0.7 CNAs in Pax5^+/− leukemias. Genomic resequencing was also performed on Pax5 and revealed three missense mutations in the DNA binding paired domain (R38H, P80R and G85R), one of which (P80R) is the most common PAX5 point mutation in human B-ALL. All three point mutations are predicted to impair DNA binding of Pax5. Interestingly, the majority of the pro-B cell leukemias that arose in the Pax5^+/−Arf^+/+ animals were found to harbor mutations (CNAs or point mutation) of the retained Pax5 allele, consistent with the immature immunophenotype. To further explore the relationship between our murine model and human BCR-ABL1 ALL, we performed gene expression profiling of Pax5^+/+ and Pax5^+/− leukemias and compared their signatures to those of human BCR-ABL1 ALL and stage-specific murine B lymphoid developmental signatures using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). This analysis identified significant similarity between murine and human BCR-ABL1 leukemias, thus providing further evidence that this model closely recapitulates human BCR-ABL1 ALL. Notably, Pax5^+/− leukemias, or Pax5^+/+ leukemias that acquired additional mutations of B-lymphoid regulators exhibited a less mature gene expression profile than leukemias lacking B-lymphoid regulatory mutations. These data indicate that loss of Pax5 contributes to leukemogenesis, that additional genomic alterations in genes regulating B lymphoid development and cell cycle regulators/tumor suppressors (Arf) are frequent events in BCR-ABL1 acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and that these lesions result in impaired B-lymphoid maturation in B-ALL. The genetic complexity of BCR-ABL1 ALL is likely to have important therapeutic implications for this poor prognosis subtype of leukemia.