Revealing Novel Mechanisms Underlying Inactivation of Tumor Suppressor Genes on Duplicated Chromosomes in Multiple Myeloma
Authors: Cirrincione Anthony , Kaddoura Marcella , Poos Alexandra Maria , Ziccheddu Bachisio , Maclachlan Kylee H , Chojnacka Monika , Diamond Benjamin , Blaney Patrick , Gagler Dylan , Zhang Yanming , Dogan Ahmet , Lesokhin Alexander , Davies Faith E. , Goldschmidt Hartmut , Weisel Katja , Fenk Roland , Mai Elias K. , Korde Neha , Morgan Gareth J. , Raab Marc S. , Usmani Saad Z , Landgren Ola , Weinhold Niels , Maura Francesco 
Published: December 2023

INTRODUCTION: Multiple myeloma (MM) evolution is complex and heterogeneous. Hyperdiploidy (HRD) and translocations affecting the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) locus are historically considered initiating genomic events of MM. The potential impact of genomic events acquired before known MM initiating events has never been addressed.

METHODS: To investigate whether genomic deletions are acquired before and after known MM initiating events we interrogated whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from patients with newly diagnosed MM (NDMM, n=319) and relapsed MM (RRMM, n=59). Our newly developed analytical and chronological workflow integrating single nucleotide variants (SNV), structural variants (SV), and copy number variants (CNV) comprises two main steps. First, we estimated the molecular time (i.e. corrected ratio between duplicated and non-duplicated clonal SNV) of large clonal chromosomal duplications and identified the earliest set of chromosomal gains in each patient. Second, within each early large chromosomal gain we identified clonal SV mediating CNV loss. A deletion on a gain can generate three possible scenarios: 1) one of the duplicated alleles is lost after the gain (i.e. post-gain) causing a CNV jump from 3:1 to 2:1 (total alleles : minor alleles); 2) there is a deletion before the duplication (i.e., pre-gain) causing a CNV jump from 3:1 to 1:0. 3) the deletion occurs on the minor, non-duplicated allele, causing a CNV jump from 3:1 to 2:0. Timing the deletion in relation with the chromosomal duplication is impossible in this scenario.

RESULTS: Molecular time data were successfully generated for 249/319 (78%) NDMM and 51/59 (86%) RRMM patients. Restricting our analysis to NDMM with HRD without canonical IGH translocations, 16/170 (9%) of patients acquired deletions before the earliest multi-chromosomal gains, suggesting MM precursors can acquire deletions before HRD. Investigating the entire series, post-gain deletions were observed in 126/417 (30%) samples considering both early and late time windows. Leveraging a background model, we demonstrated that pre-gain events involved more tumor-suppressor genes (TSG) than expected by chance, including TCF3, ATM and TRAF3. In contrast, oncogenes were involved less than expected. In post-gain deletions, both oncogenes and TSG were involved more than expected by chance .

To validate and assess the impact of deletions on driver gene expression we investigated WGS and RNAsequencing data from the MMRF CoMMpass study (n=752 NDMM). Because of the low coverage not allowing for molecular time estimation, we limited our analysis to HRD without IGH translocations. Pre-gain and post-gain deletions were observed in 47/431 (11%) and 225/431 (52%) of patients, respectively. We defined loss and gain of function events based on whether the expression level of a gene affected by the deletion was in the first or fourth quartile, respectively. Pre-gain deletions were mostly associated with downregulation of TSG expression [n=31 events in 13/431 (3%) patients]. In contrast,post-gain deletions had a more heterogenous impact with loss- and gain-of-function events. Gain-of-function events were driven by two main mechanisms: 1) the deletion joined an oncogene with a distal regulatory region inducing its overexpression [n=44 events in 6/431 (1.3%) patients]; 2) the deletion caused a new and expressed fusion [n=231 events in 109/431 (25%) patients], resulting in either loss- or gain-of-function. Surprisingly, post-gain deletions had also a major impact on TSG expression. In 60 patients (14%), we observed 146 post-gain deletions where the affected tumor suppressor gene (TSG) expression was downregulated to the level of cases with monoallelic and biallelic deletions, even though two alleles were retained. Finally, to validate these findings, we investigated 16 RRMM patients with available WGS, scATAC-seq and scRNA-seq and observed additional evidence of TSG downregulation after both pre- and post-gain deletions.

CONCLUSION: Leveraging a large cohort of NDMM we show that somatic deletions can be acquired before HRD trisomies that are assumed to be initiating events. Furthermore, post-gain deletions emerged as a new mechanism inducing TSG down-regulation, despite an apparently diploid gene status.