Growth arrest‐specific protein 2 (GAS2) interacts with CXCR4 to promote T‐cell leukemogenesis partially via c‐MYC

Abstract

Although growth arrest‐specific protein 2 (GAS2) promotes the growth of T‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T‐ALL) cells in culture, the effect of GAS2 on T‐cell leukemogenesis has not been studied, and the mechanism remains unclear. In the present study, xenograft studies showed that GAS2 silencing impaired T‐cell leukemogenesis and decreased leukemic cell infiltration. Mechanistically, GAS2 regulated the protein expression of C‐X‐C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) rather than its transcript expression. Immunoprecipitation revealed that GAS2 interacted with CXCR4, and confocal analysis showed that GAS2 was partially co‐expressed with CXCR4, which provided a strong molecular basis for GAS2 to regulate CXCR4 expression. Importantly, CXCR4 overexpression alleviated the inhibitory effect of GAS2 silencing on the growth and migration of T‐ALL cells. Moreover, GAS2 or CXCR4 silencing inhibited the expression of NOTCH1 and c‐MYC. Forced expression of c‐MYC rescued the growth suppression induced by GAS2 or CXCR4 silencing. Meanwhile, GAS2 deficiency, specifically in blood cells, had a mild effect on normal hematopoiesis, including T‐cell development, and GAS2 silencing did not affect the growth of normal human CD3+ or CD34+ cells. Overall, our data indicate that GAS2 promotes T‐cell leukemogenesis through its interaction with CXCR4 to activate NOTCH1/c‐MYC, whereas impaired GAS2 expression has a mild effect on normal hematopoiesis. Therefore, our study suggests that targeting the GAS2/CXCR4 axis is a potential therapeutic strategy for T‐ALL.

CXCR4 regulates macrophage M1 polarization by altering glycolysis to promote prostate fibrosis

“…Metabolic changes similar to the Warburg effect occur in the context of in ammation induction. Recent studies on c-MYC have identi ed it as a key factor in tumor metabolism immunity and a major regulator of metabolic reprogramming, stimulating glycolysis, nucleotide metabolism, and glutamine metabolism [37,52].Although some studies have indicated that silencing CXCR4 in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia can inhibit the expression of myc [53]. However, we rst demonstrated the transcriptional regulation of Pfkfb3 by MYC in macrophages.…”