CRISPR Publication Summary
Synthetic Lethality of Wnt Pathway Activation and Asparaginase in Drug-Resistant Acute Leukemias.
Hinze L, Pfirrmann M, Karim S, Degar J, McGuckin C, Vinjamur D, Sacher J, Stevenson KE, Neuberg DS, Orellana E, Stanulla M, Gregory RI, Bauer DE, Wagner FF, Stegmaier K, Gutierrez A
Resistance to asparaginase, an antileukemic enzyme that depletes asparagine, is a common clinical problem. Using a genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screen, we found a synthetic lethal interaction between Wnt pathway activation and asparaginase in acute leukemias resistant to this enzyme. Wnt pathway activation induced asparaginase sensitivity in distinct treatment-resistant subtypes of acute leukemia, but not in normal hematopoietic progenitors. Sensitization to asparaginase was mediated by Wnt-dependent stabilization of proteins (Wnt/STOP), which inhibits glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3)-dependent protein ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation, a catabolic source of asparagine. Inhibiting the alpha isoform of GSK3 phenocopied this effect, and pharmacologic GSK3α inhibition profoundly sensitized drug-resistant leukemias to asparaginase. Our findings provide a molecular rationale for activation of Wnt/STOP signaling to improve the therapeutic index of asparaginase.
Cancer cell | 2019-04-15 | PUBMED: 30991026
Supplementary Files:
NIHMS1528332-supplement-3.xlsx