Targeting CK2 Overexpression as a Novel Therapeutic Tool in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

Abstract 803

Characterization of the molecular mechanisms that regulate viability of B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells may provide novel insights into the biology of this incurable malignancy and reveal prognostic markers and therapeutic targets. In particular, specific inhibition of signaling elements essential for leukemia cell survival offers great promise for the design of more efficient and selective therapies. The protein serine/threonine kinase CK2 is frequently upregulated in different cancers and mounting evidence implicates CK2 in tumorigenesis. In the present study, we evaluated whether CK2 may play a significant role in CLL. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from CLL patients (n=15) and healthy controls (n=7 ) were initially compared by Western blot densitometry analysis. CK2α, but not CK2β, was significantly upregulated in primary CLL patient samples (P=0.0003; Unpaired t-test), and CK2α expression clearly correlated with CK2 in vitro kinase activity (P value=0.0165). To test the functional significance of CK2 overexpression in CLL, we cultured PBMCs collected from leukemia patients (n=53) or purified CLL cells (n=7) in the presence of the CK2-specific small molecule inhibitors TBB and DRB. As determined by Annexin V-APC/7AAD staining and analysis of procaspase 3 cleavage, both TBB and DRB clearly promoted apoptosis of CLL cells (CD19+CD5+) in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Importantly, neither CK2 antagonist induced significant cell death in the normal T-cell population (CD19-CD3+) present in each PBMC patient sample. Consequently, the percentage of normal T-cells dramatically increased upon TBB/DRB treatment. Further, B-cells from healthy controls (n=7) were not affected by TBB or DRB, confirming the selectivity of the CK2 inhibitors towards leukemia cells. Notably, although co-culture with OP9 stromal cells promoted primary leukemia cell survival in vitro, it did not prevent apoptosis of CLL cells mediated by CK2 inhibition. The pro-apoptotic effect of TBB/DRB did not correlate with clinical parameters such as lymphocyte doubling time, ZAP-70 expression or IGHV mutational status. Interestingly, there was a significant association between the percentage of CLL cells in the peripheral blood and sensitivity to CK2 inhibition (e.g. 25μM TBB, P=0.0043), and treatment with 12.5μM TBB correlated with Binet stage (P=0.0043). We previously showed that CK2 phosphorylates and thereby inactivates PTEN in primary T-ALL cells leading to the hyperactivation of PI3K signaling pathway (Silva et al, JCI 2008). Here, we found that primary CLL samples displayed higher P-PTEN/PTEN ratios than healthy controls (P=0.0034), which correlated with CK2 expression (P=0.0064). Furthermore, treatment with TBB/DRB abrogated PTEN phosphorylation in 2 primary leukemia samples analyzed, suggesting that CK2 negatively regulates the activity of the tumor suppressor PTEN in CLL and raising the possibility that the pro-survival effect of CK2 may be dependent, at least in part, on the activation of PI3K pathway. Overall, our study suggests that CK2 plays an important role in the biology of CLL, and lays the groundwork for the inclusion of CK2 antagonists into future therapeutic options.