Aggressive natural killer-cell leukemia mutational landscape and drug profiling highlight JAK-STAT signaling as therapeutic target

Aggressive natural killer-cell (NK-cell) leukemia (ANKL) is an extremely aggressive malignancy with dismal prognosis and lack of targeted therapies. Here, we elucidate the molecular pathogenesis of ANKL using a combination of genomic and drug sensitivity profiling. We study 14 ANKL patients using whole-exome sequencing (WES) and identify mutations in STAT3 (21%) and RAS-MAPK pathway genes (21%) as well as in DDX3X (29%) and epigenetic modifiers (50%). Additional alterations include JAK-STAT copy gains and tyrosine phosphatase mutations, which we show recurrent also in extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (NKTCL) through integration of public genomic data. Drug sensitivity profiling further demonstrates the role of the JAK-STAT pathway in the pathogenesis of NK-cell malignancies, identifying NK cells to be highly sensitive to JAK and BCL2 inhibition compared to other hematopoietic cell lineages. Our results provide insight into ANKL genetics and a framework for application of targeted therapies in NK-cell malignancies

Finemapping of the arthritis QTL Pia7 reveals co-localization with Oia2 and the APLEC locus.

In this study, we sought to determine the effect of the quantitative trait locus Pia7 on arthritis severity. The regulatory locus derived from the arthritis-resistant E3 rat strain was introgressed into the arthritis-susceptibility DA strain through continuous backcrossing. Congenic rats were studied for their susceptibility to experimental arthritis using pristane and adjuvant oil. In addition, cell number and function of various leukocyte populations were analyzed either under naive or stimulated conditions. We found that the minimal congenic fragment of DA.E3-Pia7 rats overlapped with the minimal fragment in DA.PVG-Oia2 congenic rats, which has been positionally cloned to the antigen-presenting lectin-like receptor complex (APLEC) genes. DA.E3-Pia7 congenic rats were protected from both PIA and OIA, but the protection was more pronounced in OIA. In adoptive transfer experiments we observed that the Pia7 locus controlled the priming of arthritogenic T cells and not the effector phase. In addition, Pia7 congenic rats had a significant higher frequency of B cells and granulocytes as well as TNFalpha production after stimulation, indicating a higher activation state of cells of the innate immune system. In conclusion, this study shows that the APLEC locus is a major locus regulating the severity of experimentally induced arthritis in rats.Genes and Immunity advance online publication, 4 March 2010; doi:10.1038/gene.2010.2

A missense variant in NCF1 is associated with susceptibility to multiple autoimmune diseases

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disease with a strong genetic component characterized by autoantibody production and a type 1 interferon signatures. Here we report a missense variant (g.74779296G>A; p.Arg90His) in NCF1, encoding the p47phox subunit of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase (NOX2), as the putative underlying causal variant that drives a strong SLE-associated signal detected by the lmmunochip in the GTF2IRD1-GTF2I region at 7q11.23 with a complex genomic structure. We show that the p.Arg90His substitution, which is reported to cause reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production(2), predisposes to SLE (odds ratio (OR) = 3.47 in Asians (P-meta = 3.1 x 10(-104)), OR = 2.61 in European Americans, OR = 2.02 in African Americans) and other autoimmune diseases, including primary Sjogren's syndrome (OR = 2.45 in Chinese, OR = 2.35 in European Americans) and rheumatoid arthritis (OR = 1.65 in Koreans). Additionally, decreased and increased copy numbers of NCF1 predispose to and protect against SLE, respectively. Our data highlight the pathogenic role of reduced NOX2-derived ROS levels in autoimmune diseases.US National Institutes of Health [R01AR043814, R21AR065626, R01AR056360, R01AR063124, U19AI082714, R01AR043274, R01DE015223, R01DE018209, R01AR050782, R01AR065953, P50AR0608040, P60AR062755]; Lupus Foundation of America; Alliance for Lupus Research; Sjogren's Syndrome Foundation; Korea Healthcare Technology R&D Project of the Ministry for Health and Welfare in the Republic of Korea [HI13C2124, HI15C3182]; National Basic Research Program of China (973 program) [2014CB541902]; Key Research Program of Bureau of Frontier Sciences and Education Chinese Academy of Sciences grant [QYZDJ-SSW-SMC006]; Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences grant [KJZD-EW-L01-3]; State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes grant [91-14-05]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [31630021]; Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences grant [XDA12020107]; Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) grants [UL1RR033176, UL1TR000124, UL1TR001450]; Spaulding-Paolozzi Autoimmunity Center of Excellence (MUSC); Endowment for Inflammation Research; SmartState(R) Center of Economic Excellence in Inflammation and Fibrosis ResearchSCI(E)ARTICLE3433-4374