BTK inhibition sensitizes acute lymphoblastic leukemia to asparaginase by suppressing the amino acid response pathway

Miriam Butler, Dorette S. van Ingen Schenau, Jiangyan Yu, Silvia Jenni, Maria P. Dobay, Rico Hagelaar, Britt M.T. Vervoort, Trisha M. Tee, Fieke W. Hoff, Jules P. Meijerink, Steven M. Kornblau, Beat Bornhauser, Jean Pierre Bourquin, Roland P. Kuiper, Laurens T. van der Meer, Frank N. van Leeuwen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Asparaginase (ASNase) therapy has been a mainstay of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) protocols for decades and shows promise in the treatment of a variety of other cancers. To improve the efficacy of ASNase treatment, we used a CRISPR/Cas9-based screen to identify actionable signaling intermediates that improve the response to ASNase. Both genetic inactivation of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) and pharmacological inhibition by the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib strongly synergize with ASNase by inhibiting the amino acid response pathway, a mechanism involving c-Myc–mediated suppression of GCN2 activity. This synthetic lethal interaction was observed in 90% of patient-derived xenografts, regardless of the genomic subtype. Moreover, ibrutinib substantially improved ASNase treatment response in a murine PDX model. Hence, ibrutinib may be used to enhance the clinical efficacy of ASNase in ALL. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as # NCT02884453.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2383-2395
Number of pages13
JournalBlood
Volume138
Issue number23
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 9 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Immunology
  • Hematology
  • Cell Biology

MD Anderson CCSG core facilities

  • Research Animal Support Facility
  • Tissue Biospecimen and Pathology Resource
  • Functional Proteomics Reverse Phase Protein Array Core
  • Bioinformatics Shared Resource

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