Proto-oncogene c-jun expression is induced by AML1-ETO in a JNK dependent manner:possible role in the pathogenesis of acute myeloid leukemia

摘要

Overexpression of proto-oncogene c-jun and constitutive activation of the Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathway have been implicated in the leukemic transformation process. However, c-jun expression has not been investigated in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells containing the most common chromosomal translocations. t(8;21) is one of the most common AML-associated translocation and results in the AML1-ETO fusion protein. Overexpression of AML1-ETO in NIH3T3 cells leads to increased phosphorylation of Ser63 in c-Jun, which is generally JNK dependent. The role of the JNK signaling pathway for the functional properties of AML1-ETO is, however, unknown. In the present study we found high expression levels of c-jun mRNA in t(8;21), t(15;17) or inv(16) positive patient cells by microarray analysis. Within t(8;21) positive patient samples, there was a correlation between AML1-ETO and c-jun mRNA expression levels. In myeloid U937 cells, c-jun mRNA and c-Jun protein expression levels increased upon induction of AML1-ETO. AML1-ETO transactivated the human c-jun promoter through the proximal AP-1 site via activating the JNK signaling pathway. JNK targets c-Jun and ATF-2, which also bind to the proximal AP-1 site in U937 cells, were also phosphorylated upon AML1-ETO induction. Furthermore, AML1-ETO induction increased the DNA binding capacity of c-Jun and ATF-2 to the proximal AP-1 site of the c-jun promoter, which might result in their enhanced transactivation capacities. Interference with JNK and c-Jun activation by using JIP-1 or a JNK inhibitor reduced the transactivation capacity of AML1-ETO on the c-jun promoter and the pro-apoptotic function of AML1-ETO in U937 cells. AML1-ETO seems to activate the JNK signaling pathway by inducing the expression of a cytoplasmic factor, possibly G-CSF, because supernatant of AML1-ETO expressing cells was sufficient to induce phosphorylation of JNK and c-Jun in wildtype U937 cells. This data demonstrates a novel mechanism of how AML1-ETO might exert positive effects on target gene expression and identifies the proto-oncogene c-jun as a common target gene in AML patient cells.