Resistance of infant leukemia with MLL rearrangement to tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand: a possible mechanism for poor sensitivity to antitumor immunity

• Published in: Leukemia Vol. 20; no. 12; pp. 2119 - 2129
• Main Authors: INUKAI, T, ZHANG, X, HONNA, H, KAGAMI, K, NAKAMOTO, K, YAGITA, H, OKUMURA, K, KOYAMA-OKAZAKI, T, NAKAZAWA, S, SUGITA, K, GOTO, M, HIROSE, K, UNO, K, AKAHANE, K, NEMOTO, A, GOI, K, SATO, H, TAKAHASHI, K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing 01.12.2006; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia; Acute myeloid leukemia; Apoptosis; Biological and medical sciences; Bone marrow; Cell death; Cell surface; Cell-mediated immunity; Cytotoxicity; Death receptors; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; FasL protein; Gene Rearrangement; Graft vs Leukemia Effect; Hematologic and hematopoietic diseases; Hematopoietic stem cells; Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase; Humans; Immunity; Immunology; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infants; Investigations; Latency; Leukemia; Leukemia - drug therapy; Leukemia - genetics; Leukemia - immunology; Leukemias. Malignant lymphomas. Malignant reticulosis. Myelofibrosis; Ligands; Lymphatic leukemia; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Medical sciences; Myeloblastic leukemia; Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein - genetics; Natural killer cells; Necrosis; NF-kappa B - antagonists & inhibitors; NF-kappa B - metabolism; Pediatrics; Receptors; Receptors, TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand - analysis; Sensitivity; Stem cell transplantation; Stem cells; TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand - pharmacology; Toxicity; TRAIL protein; Transplantation; Tumor cell lines; Tumor Escape; Tumor necrosis factor; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; Tumors; Japan; Human; Antineoplastic agent; Graft versus leukemia reaction; Fas ligand; TRAIL; Leukemia; Cytokine; Infant; Malignant hemopathy; MLL; Immunity; Mechanism; Resistance; infant leukemia; Sensitivity; Tumor necrosis factor; FasL; Gene rearrangement; TNF related apoptosis inducing ligand; GVL
• ISSN: 0887-6924; 1476-5551
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.leu.2404429

Malignant cells generally acquire some immune escape mechanisms for clonal expansion. Immune escape mechanisms also contribute to the failure of graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). Infant leukemias with mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) rearrangement have a remarkably short latency, and GVL effect after allo-SCT has not been clearly evidenced in these leukemias. Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)- and FasL-mediated cytotoxic pathways play important roles in cytotoxic T-lymphocyte- and natural killer cell-mediated antitumor immunity and optimal GVL activity. We investigated the in vitro sensitivity of MLL-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) cells to TRAIL- and FasL-mediated cytotoxicity. Most of cell lines and primary leukemia cells were highly resistant to TRAIL primarily owing to low cell-surface expression of death receptors in ALL and simultaneous expression of decoy receptors in AML. Nearly half of cell lines and majority of primary leukemia cells showed low sensitivity to FasL. These results suggest that resistance to death-inducing ligands, particularly to TRAIL, could be one of the mechanisms for a rapid clonal expansion and a poor sensitivity to the GVL effect in infant leukemias with MLL rearrangement.