Abstract 3890: MicroRNA-551b is highly expressed in hematopoietic stem cells and expression in acute myeloid leukemia is associated with relapse and poor survival
Authors: leeuw David C. de , Denkers Fedor , Valk Peter , Rink Iris de , Kerkhoven Ron , Schuurhuis Gerrit Jan , Ossenkoppele Gert J. , Smit Linda 
Published: May 2015

Despite high remission rates after chemotherapy, only 30-40% of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients survive five years after diagnosis. The main cause for this treatment failure is insufficient eradication of a subpopulation of chemotherapy resistant leukemic cells with a stem cell-like character. These so-called leukemic stem cells (LSC) are thought to be responsible for relapse.

We hypothesized that success of novel anti-AML therapies relies on functional manipulation of genes including microRNAs, resulting in elimination of leukemic (stem) cells while sparing residual co-existing normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). We aimed at identification of microRNAs differentially expressed between HSC, LSC and the AML bulk obtained from the same AML bone marrow, taking into account the effects of the leukemic microenvironment.

To that end, we described immunophenotypic markers that can distinguish LSC from HSC. Moreover, we identified that HSC have higher aldehyde dehydrogenase activity than LSC (Schuurhuis et al. Plos One 2013). Comparing the microRNA expression profile of LSC with that of HSC showed that microRNA-551b (miR-551b) is highly expressed in residual HSC in the AML bone marrow. To determine whether miR-551b is a HSC specific microRNA we purified stem and progenitor cell subsets from normal bone marrow and showed that miR-551b is the highest expressed in the two most primitive CD34+CD38- populations i.e. CD90+CD45RA- HSC and CD90-CD45RA- multipotent progenitors.

To investigate whether the expression of miR-551b is of clinical importance in AML we determined its expression in AML bone marrow samples (n=154) and showed that high miR-551b is associated with lower complete remission (CR) rates after the first cycle of induction chemotherapy, shorter relapse free survival and a worse overall survival. In line with miR-551b being a stem cell miRNA, high expression in AML was associated with an undifferentiated morphology (FAB M0).

To shed more light on the functional role of miR-551b in AML we correlated the expression of miR-551b with overall gene expression in a large panel of AML patients. Many of the genes that highly correlated with miR-551b like; MLLT3, INPP4B, HTR1F, HOPX, PROM1 and others, are also present in published HSC signatures. In conclusion, miR-551b is specifically expressed in normal stem and multipotent progenitor cells and high expression in AML is associated with poor prognosis. Currently, our research focuses on the function of miR-551b in AML.

Citation Format: David C. de leeuw, Fedor Denkers, Peter Valk, Iris de Rink, Ron Kerkhoven, Gerrit Jan Schuurhuis, Gert J. Ossenkoppele, Linda Smit. MicroRNA-551b is highly expressed in hematopoietic stem cells and expression in acute myeloid leukemia is associated with relapse and poor survival. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3890. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3890