The Novel Immunoproteasome Inhibitor PR-924: Anti-Leukemic Activity and Mechanisms Of Resistance

Proteasome inhibition with bortezomib (BTZ) is an effective treatment for hematological malignancies and an emerging treatment strategy for acute leukemia. However, the side-effects of BTZ and emergence of BTZ-resistance call for alternative therapeutic approaches. The immunoproteasome may serve as a candidate since its expression is higher than constitutive proteasome expression in cells of hematological malignancies, including acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). To this end, the new immunoproteasome inhibitor PR-924 may elicit anti-leukemic activity, since it bears greater specificity for the β5i subunit of the immunoproteasome compared to other proteasome inhibitors including BTZ and carfilzomib. The aim of the current study was to examine the proteasome inhibition capacity and cell growth inhibitory impact of PR-924 in acute leukemia cells and sublines with acquired resistance to BTZ. We further determined whether PR-924 itself would be prone to resistance development and if so, to explore the underlying molecular basis. To assess the anti-leukemic activity of PR-924, its cytotoxicity was determined in two human cell lines of hematological origin: the T-ALL cell line CCRF-CEM and the acute myeloid leukemia cell line THP1, and their 150-fold BTZ-resistant sublines CEM/BTZ200, and THP1/BTZ200, respectively. Parental CEM and THP1 cells displayed similar sensitivity to PR-924 (IC₅₀ CEM: 1.8 µM ± 0.4, THP1: 1.5 µM ± 0.2), whereas their BTZ-resistant lines displayed a moderate 10-12 fold cross-resistance to PR-924 (IC₅₀ CEM/BTZ200: 21.1 µM ± 0.5, THP1/BTZ200: 15.6 µM ± 1.6). Flow cytometric analysis revealed that PR-924-induced cell death was mediated by induction of apoptosis. Moreover, PR-924 exposure resulted in a (up to 50%) reduction of cell surface expression of HLA Class I.

To determine whether PR-924 activity relies on specific inhibition of β5i, proteasome activity inhibition experiments were performed over a range of 10 nM – 10 µM PR-924. Notably, in parental cells, β5i activity was already inhibited by 20% at 10 nM PR-924 and > 90% inhibition was achieved at 100 nM PR-924. At higher PR-924 concentrations of 1-10 µM, inhibition of both β5 and β1i activities was observed, thus indicating that PR-924 blocks the β5i activity far below concentrations that exert anti-proliferative activity (1.5 µM), consistent with earlier studies of PR-924 (Parlati et al. Blood, 2009).

Next, acquired resistance to PR-924 was provoked in CEM and THP1 cells by step-wise increasing PR-924 concentrations in cell culture, starting at the IC₅₀ concentrations. Following this process, CEM cells resistant to 20 µM PR-924 (CEM/PR20) and THP1 cells resistant to 12 mM PR-924 (THP1/PR12) exhibited IC₅₀ values of 22.1 µM PR-924 (resistance factor 13) and 14.3 µM PR-924 (resistance factor 10), respectively. In addition, these PR-924 resistant cells displayed 10-fold cross-resistance to BTZ. To explore mechanisms of PR-924 resistance, we first sequenced exon 2/3 of the PSMB8 gene (encoding β5i), a similar functioning coding region that was previously reported to harbor PSMB5 mutations in BTZ-resistant leukemia cells (Franke et al. Leukemia, 2012). However, no mutations were found in PSMB8 exon 2/3. Remarkably, we did identify mutations in exon 2 of the PSMB5 gene (encoding the S1 pocket of β5) in both CEM/PR20 (Met45Ile) and of THP1/PR12 (Ala49Thr); these amino acid substitutions are similar to those observed in BTZ-resistant sublines. Finally, we characterized proteasome subunit expression by ProCISE analysis in the PR-924 resistant cell lines. This method is a subunit-specific active-site ELISA assay, which utilizes a purified proteasome standard curve to calculate ng of subunit per µg total protein. Expression of constitutive proteasome subunits in CEM/PR20 and THP1/PR8 cells were upregulated up to 2.5-fold, compared to their parental counterparts, whereas immunoproteasome subunit expression was moderately decreased (up to 2-fold) in CEM/PR20 and increased in THP1/PR8 (up to 1.6-fold).

In conclusion, PR-924 displayed significant anti-leukemic activity. Although there was cross-resistance to BTZ, PR-924 retained activity in BTZ-resistant leukemia cells. Despite PR-924 specificity to the β5i subunit of the proteasome, its anti-leukemic effect requires concentrations that block both β5 and β5i subunits. This notion is underscored by emergence of acquired mutations in PSMB5 rather than in PSMB8.