Frequent Involvement of PVT1 in Multiple Myeloma Carrying 8q24 Rearrangement and Identification of Novel PVT1-NBEA Chimeric Gene,

Abstract 3917

The 8q24 rearrangement has been identified in 3.5–5.0 % of multiple myeloma (MM) patients with conventional cytogenetic analyses, such as G-banding, and in 9.5–20% of MM patients with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and spectral karyotyping (SKY) techniques. Of note, 8q24 rearrangements accompany with advanced MM patients and MM cell lines more frequently. Chromosomal translocation of the immunoglobulin gene (Ig), such as t(8;14)(q24;q32) and t(8;22)(q24;q11), occur in approximately 25% in MM with 8q24 rearrangements, while non-Ig chromosomal loci, including 1p13, 1p21–22, 6p21, 6q12–15, 13q14, and 16q22, have been also identified as translocation partners where no candidate genes have been delineated so far. In this study, we precisely investigate molecular features of chromosomal 8q24 rearrangements to access pathophysiology of MM. FISH, SKY, and RT-PCR analyses were performed as described previously. DNA gain and loss assay based on oligonucleotide array (GeneChip Human Mapping 50K, 250K, or 6.0 array, Affymetrix) was performed on the genomic DNA extracted from MM cells. Oligonucleotide array data was analyzed using the CNAG3.0 or 3.3 programs. Various types of 8q24 rearrangements were detected in 12 (22.2 %) of 54 MM patients and 8 (72.7 %) of 11 MM cell lines by means of FISH procedure. A breakpoint cluster of approximately 360 kb region containing myelocytomatosis oncogene (MYC) and plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (PVT1) genes at 8q24 was divided into three subclusters according to rearranged region, that is, PVT1 region, region which is centromerically adjacent to PVT1 (including MYC), and region which is 120kb centromeric to MYC. Seven of 12 patient-derived cells and 5 of 8 cell lines with 8q24 abnormalities showed PVT1 rearrangements with various partner loci, such as 4p16, 4q13, 13q13, 14q32, or 16q23–24 in SKY combined with FISH analyses (SKY-FISH). Oligonucleotide array combined with SKY analysis delineated the candidate genes within partner loci of 8q24 rearrangements by mapping boundary breakpoints of copy number gains and losses, identifying MMSET, EPHA5, NBEA, and WWOX as candidate genes at 4p16, 4q13, 13q13, and 16q23–24, respectively. We identified the novel chimeric gene PVT1-NBEA in AMU-MM1 cell line with t(8;13)(q24;q13). The PVT1-NBEA fusion transcript in which PVT1 exon 1 was fused to NBEA exon 3 was accompanied with overexpression of abnormal NBEA lacking its part of N-terminus. In conclusion, PVT1 rearrangement may play pivotal roles in pathophysiology of MM harboring 8q24 abnormalities.