The acute myelogenous leukemia-1 (AML1)-ETO fusion protein is generated by the t(8;21), which is found in 40% of AMLs of the French-American-British M2 subtype. AML1-ETO interferes with the function of the AML1 (RUNX1, CBFA2) transcription factor in a dominant-negative fashion and represses transcription by binding its consensus DNA-binding site and via protein-protein interactions with other transcription factors. AML1 activity is critical for the development of definitive hematopoiesis, and haploinsufficiency of AML1 has been linked to a propensity to develop AML. Murine experiments suggest that AML1-ETO expression may not be sufficient for leukemogenesis; however, like the BCR-ABL isoforms, the cellular background in which these fusion proteins are expressed may be critical to the phenotype observed. Retroviral gene transfer was used to examine the effect of AML1-ETO on the in vitro behavior of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.
IntroductionThe recurrent chromosomal translocations found in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) often involve transcription factors. Translocations may affect the level of gene expression, or more commonly, these genetic abnormalities may generate fusion or chimeric proteins with altered functional properties. Chromosomal translocations often disrupt genes that are required for the normal development of blood cells; one example is the transcription factor core-binding factor (CBF). CBF is a heterodimeric complex that binds to core enhancer elements in viral and cellular genes. Both components of CBF are affected by translocations found in human leukemias, including t(8;21), t(3;21), t(12;21), and inv(16). 1,2 The CBF␣ (AML1/RUNX1) subunit binds DNA directly, whereas the CBF subunit enhances binding of CBF␣ to DNA but does not bind DNA itself. The importance of AML1 in hematopoiesis has been shown by the phenotype of AML1 and CBF knockout mice. Both mice lack definitive hematopoiesis and die in utero, and embryonic stem cells from these null mice are unable to contribute to definitive hematopoiesis in chimeric mice. [3][4][5][6][7] These findings demonstrate that AML1/CBF is required for the development of hematopoietic stem cells.The (8;21) translocation is associated with approximately 40% of myeloid leukemias of the French-American-British (FAB) M2 subtype and rearranges the AML1 gene on chromosome 21q22 and the ETO gene on chromosome 8q22, generating an AML1-ETO fusion protein that contains the first 177 amino acids of AML1 (including the DNA-binding domain but lacking the transcriptional activation domain of AML1) and almost the full length of the ETO protein. The role of AML1-ETO in the pathogenesis of AML has been intensely studied. Thus far, it has been shown that AML1-ETO functions mainly as a transcriptional repressor, while AML1 is mainly a transcriptional activator. 8 The importance of the ETO domain to this repression has recently been identified. ETO binds the corepressors N-CoR and mSin3 and recruits histone deacetylase activity. These functions correlate ...