Mer Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Is Over-Expressed In and Contributes to Oncogenesis In Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Abstract 1390

The abnormal activation of tyrosine kinases in pediatric leukemias has been associated with a poor prognosis, and provides a potential focus for targeted therapy. Pediatric acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is known to be particularly difficult to treat successfully. The development of therapy for AML targeted against a specific cancer-promoting signaling pathway would potentially allow for a more efficacious clinical response with less therapy-associated toxicity. The Mer Tyrosine Kinase (TK), a transmembrane receptor in the TAM family, is known to regulate intracellular pathways promoting cell survival and proliferation in a number of malignancies, but has not previously been explored in AML.

We assessed the prevalence of Mer TK expression in AML. Western blot and flow cytometric analysis demonstrated aberrant expression of Mer TK in 80% (13 of 15) of AML cell lines. Similarly, greater than 85% (24 of 28) of samples from newly diagnosed pediatric AML patients expressed Mer TK on leukemic blasts. In addition, 5 of 6 pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory AML had increased or equivalent Mer expression by flow cytometry relative to diagnostic samples.

To assess whether Mer plays a role in proliferation in AML, we investigated downstream signaling pathways in the Nomo-1 and Kasumi-1 AML cell lines. Phosphoarray and western blot analysis demonstrated increased phospho-Erk 1/2, phospho-Akt, phospho-mTOR and phospho-MSK1 following treatment with Gas6, the Mer ligand. These data demonstrate activation of pathways which are known to aid in malignant cell survival.

To assess the effect of Mer TK inhibition on myeloblast phenotype, we used two different shRNA constructs to decrease expression of Mer by >50% in the Nomo-1 and Kasumi-1 cell lines. The ability of these cell lines to evade apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry following staining with propidium iodide and Yo-Pro-1-iodide. Compared to wild-type Nomo-1 and Kasumi-1, the cell lines expressing decreased levels of Mer demonstrated two to four times more apoptosis in response to serum starvation (p<0.5). Additionally, myeloblast proliferative capacity was assessed using methylcellulose colony forming assays. Compared to wild-type, the AML cell lines expressing reduced levels of Mer demonstrated a 40–70% decrease in total colony forming units (p<0.5).

To explore how knockdown of Mer affects myeloblast survival in vivo, we used a mouse xenograft model. Sub-lethally irradiated NSG mice were injected intravenously with wild-type Nomo-1 or Mer knock-down Nomo-1 lines and tumor-free survival was determined. Kaplan-Meier curves were generated and demonstrated a statistically significant difference in survival between mice injected with wild-type Nomo-1 cells and those injected with a Nomo-1 Mer knock-down cell line (20 versus 43 days, p<0.1). These data demonstrate a role for Mer in acute myelogenous leukemogenesis in vivo and suggest that inhibition of Mer TK may have a clinically significant effect in patients as a targeted therapy in the treatment of human AML.