Journal of Clinical and Translational Science (Sep 2017)

2180

  • Marisa Hornbaker,
  • Miguel Gallardo,
  • Xiaorui Zhang,
  • Huaxian Ma,
  • Peter Hu,
  • Stephen Kornblau,
  • Carlos Bueso-Ramos,
  • Sean Post

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2017.207
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1
pp. 58 – 58

Abstract

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OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a devastating hematologic malignancy wherein 20% of circulating white blood cells harboring markers of immature stem cells in conjunction with positive myeloperoxidase staining and blast-appearing morphology. RPPA revealed expression of c-Myc positively correlated with increased hnRNP K levels. In HnrnpkTg mice, c-Myc protein was increased, yet MYC RNA was invariably decreased compared to wildtype. To decipher a mechanism by which this may occur, we demonstrated a post-transcriptional interaction between hnRNP K and c-Myc in vivo. JQ1, a BRD4 inhibitor, that epigenetically decreases c-Myc expression showed preferential activity against myeloid cells expressing high levels of hnRNP K both in vitro and in vivo. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: These preliminary studies demonstrate that hnRNP K overexpression causes myeloid malignancies in both mouse and man. We have determined that c-Myc contributes in part to hnRNP K-mediated leukemogenesis, and that targeting c-Myc may be an effective strategy for hnRNP K-overexpressing AML. We are currently validating other potential targets for interaction with hnRNP K by performing RNA-Seq and hnRNP K immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry. Fortunately, several of our putative targets are druggable—allowing for viable translational outputs to these mechanistic studies.