Wilms’ tumor gene (WT1) is strongly expressed in high-risk subsets of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of the present study was to perform a comprehensive analysis of WT1 gene expression in high-risk pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of WT1 gene expression for normal hematopoietic cells vs. primary leukemia cells from 801 pediatric ALL samples deposited in the Oncomine database combined with an in-depth gene expression analysis using our in-house database of gene expression profiles of primary leukemia cells from 1416 pediatric ALL cases. We also examined the expression of WT1 in primary leukemic cells from 299 T-lineage ALL patients in the Oncomine database and 189 T-lineage ALL patients in the archived datasets GSE13159, GSE13351, and GSE13159.

Results: Our data provide unprecedented evidence that primary leukemia cells from patients with MLL gene rearrangements (MLL-R) express highest levels of WT1 expression within the high-risk subsets of pediatric B-lineage ALL. Notably, MLL-R⁺ patients exhibited > 6-fold higher expression levels of the WT1 gene compared to the other B-lineage ALL subtypes combined (P < 0.0001). Our findings in 97 MLL-R⁺ infant B-lineage ALL cases uniquely demonstrated that WT1 is expressed at 1.5-4.2-fold higher levels in MLL-R⁺ infant leukemia cells than in normal hematopoietic cells and revealed that WT1 expression level was substantially higher in steroid-resistant infant leukemia cells when compared to non-leukemic healthy bone marrow cells. Furthermore, our study demonstrates for the first time that the WT1-regulated EWSR1, TP53, U2AF2, and WTAP genes (i.e., WT1 interactome) were differentially upregulated in MLL-R⁺ leukemia cells illustrating that the MLL-regulatory pathway is aberrantly upregulated in MLL-R⁺ pediatric B-lineage ALL. These novel insights provide a compelling rationale for targeting WT1 in second line treatment of MLL-R⁺ pediatric B-lineage ALL, including MLL-R⁺ infant ALL. Furthermore, our study is the first to demonstrate that leukemia cells from 370 Ph-like patients had significantly higher WT1 expression when compared to normal hematopoietic cells. Finally, our findings demonstrate for the first time that chemotherapy-resistant primarily leukemic cells from relapsed B-lineage ALL patients exhibit higher expression levels of WT1 than primary leukemia cells from newly diagnosed B-lineage ALL patients (P = 0.001).

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the WT1 gene product may serve as a target for immunotherapy in high risk/poor prognosis subsets of newly diagnosed as well as relapsed pediatric B-lineage ALL. Our findings also significantly expand the current knowledge of WT1 expression in T-lineage ALL and provide new evidence that WT1 gene and its interactome are expressed in T-lineage ALL cells at significantly higher levels than in normal hematopoietic cells. This previously unknown differential expression profile uniquely indicates that the protein product of WT1 would be an attractive molecular target for treatment of T-lineage ALL as well.

Keywords

Wilms’ tumor gene / WT1 gene / leukemia / chemotherapy resistance / immunotherapy

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