Loss of TOSO Promotes Richter's Transformation of TCL1A Driven CLL

Background: The immunoglobulin-like protein TOSO, which has been found to serve as Fc receptor for IgM (FcµR), was shown by us and others to be overexpressed on CLL cells and only weakly expressed on more aggressive B-NHL. However the functional role of TOSO on lymphomagenesis has not been explored so far.

Methods: To determine the role of TOSO on lymphoma development, we took advantage of the Eµ-TCL1 transgenic mice, which usually end up with an aggressive (IgVH unmutated) CLL-like phenotype. We generated a novel B cell-specific conditional knockout (KO) mouse model in which EµTCL1 mice (TC or control in the following) were crossbred with TOSO-floxed mice, expressing Cre recombinase under the control of the CD19 promoter (EµTCL1;Toso^fl/fl;Cd19^cre/wtor TCT in the following). TCT mice were further compared with p53 conditional knockout (EµTCL1;Tp53^fl/fl;Cd19^cre/wt or TCP).

Results: In this study, we compared kinetics, overall survival and phenotype of lymphoma/CLL in TC, TCT and TCP mice. Interestingly, TCTmice developed a very aggressive phenotype and resulted in significantly shorter overall survival compared to TC mice (TCT 274 days vs. TC 346 days; p<0.0001). As expected, mice lacking p53 (TCP) died even more rapidly than TCT mice (median survival: TCP 233 days). Initially, all three genotypes (TC, TCT, TCP) developed a CLL phenotype, exhibiting a CD19 and CD5 positive malignant clone. In the TCT mice, shorter overall survival is accompanied by a stronger increase of blood leukocytes. Flow cytometry analysis confirmed a strong increase of leukemic CD19/CD5-positive B cells in the blood of TCT mice. With only 20 weeks of age, leukemic cells already made up 37.5 % (SD ± 15.47; n=14) of lymphocytes (TC: 14.3 % SD ± 9.81; n=31). At the age of 36 weeks, TCT mice showed even a 3.6-fold elevated malignant cell count compared to control mice (n=35 TC, n=14 TCT; p=0.006). All TCT mice developed a splenomegaly, with spleen weight (p=0.01) and size (p=0.018) significantly increased in 36 week old TCT mice (n=7) compared to TC mice (n=7) and comparable to those from TCP mice. Interestingly, between week 28 and 36, we could observe that most of the TCT mice start losing CD19⁺ cells in the blood in contrast to TC and TCP mice. Immunohistochemistry revealed the expansion of malignant cells with pleomorphic nuclei and abundant cytoplasm in the spleen and bone marrow, as we know it from Richter`s transformation. To understand the rapid development of leukemia in TCT mice, we first determined the role of the BCR in this model. Interestingly, flow cytometry revealed a higher surface IgM expression (MFI: TCT 9,27; TC 2,05). In addition, in vitro assays revealed a significantly higher resistance of TCT cells towards PI3K inhibition (Idelalisib and Duvelisib) compared to TC cells.

To further rule out the role of TOSO under "germinal-center conditions", we stimulated primary human CLL cells with CD40L expressing feeder cells and IL-4. Interestingly, both stimuli (either alone or in combination) resulted in almost complete loss of TOSO on CLL cells. Moreover, we uncovered, that the TOSO promoter is counteractively regulated by NF-κB and BCL6. Furthermore, our data illustrate that DNA hypomethylation of the TOSO promoter is a discriminating characteristic in CLL patients compared to healthy donors, thus explaining the significantly enhanced expression levels. Thus, both, epigenetic regulation and altered NF-κB/ BCL6 expression are critical pathogenetic steps in the development of CLL and aggressive B-NHL by regulating TOSO expression.

Conclusion: The transformation of CLL into more aggressive malignancies is still not fully understood. Our data reveal that the loss of TOSO might play a major role in Richter's transformation by upregulation of the BCR and by mimicking the germinal-center phenotype.