Combining Arsenic Trioxide and Mitocans Selectively Disrupts Cellular Energetics in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Authors: Balasundaram Nithya , Venkatraman Arvind , Augustin Yolanda , Palani Hamenth Kumar , Palanikumar Swathy , Radhakrishnan Nair Reeshma , Korula Anu , Kulkarni Uday Prakash , Balasubramanian Poonkuzhali , Sindhuvi Eunice , George Biju , Krishna Sanjeev , Mathews Vikram 
Published: November 2021

In our earlier work with arsenic trioxide (ATO) resistance in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), we observed that ATO resistant cells reprogrammed their metabolism from glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) as a mechanism of resistance. We further demonstrated that it could be overcome by targeting this metabolic switch using FCCP (mitocan) in combination with ATO (Balasundaram N et al. Biorxiv 2020). There is increasing evidence that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells have a greater metabolic plasticity unlike ATO resistant APL cells and most cancers that rely on glycolysis. AML leukemic stem cells preferentially utilize OXPHOS for their survival (Lagadinou ED et al. Cell stem cell 2013).

Mitocans like venetoclax used in combination with hypo-methylating agents are already well established in the management of AML (Pollyea D, et al. Nat Med 2021). ATO is also an effective glycolytic inhibitor (Zhang H, et al. PNAS 2015) hence we hypothesized that a combination of ATO and mitocans could potentially target the metabolic plasticity of AML cells. As the combination of ATO and FCCP was found to be non-specific we performed a small-scale screening on an AML cell line (U937) using FDA-approved compounds that are reported to target mitochondria (Gohil V et al. Nature Biotechnology, 2010). Though most of the mitocans showed predicted synergy with ATO. We focused on artesunate (ART) as a candidate for further evaluation due to its specificity for malignant cells, high therapeutic index, bioavailability, route of administration, cost-effectiveness, and global usage as an antimalarial.

The combination of ATO+ART significantly reduced the viability of different subtypes of AML cell lines (THP-1, MV4:11, and Kasumi-1) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell lines (Jurkat E6.1, SUP B15, and MOLT-4) with minimal effect on the normal cells (CD34 and peripheral blood mononuclear cells; n=10; 48hours) (figure 1a). We noted that the selective specificity of the combination was primarily due to the iron metabolism of the leukemic cells and a requirement of iron for the activity of ART. When an iron chelator deferoxamine (DFO) was used in combination with ATO+ART there was a significant reduction in the activity of the combination on the AML cells (Figure 1b, U937; n=10; 48hours). Seahorse extracellular flux analysis validated that ART (5uM) as a single agent promoted uncoupled mitochondrial respiration and the addition of ATO resulted in a metabolic catastrophe (figure 1c and d).

Chemical drug proteomic analysis using biotinylated artesunate and pull down from the leukemic cells revealed that the top interacting partners were localized in the mitochondria. We also noted that ART treatment significantly affected the mitochondrial dynamics of leukemic cells, where ART and ATO+ART treated cells had fragmented mitochondria in comparison to the control and ATO alone treated cells where the mitochondria were more elongated (figure 1e, U937 cells; n=3). We evaluated the effect of ATO+ART and their combination with azacytidine (triplet) in-vitro. Dual and triple combinations showed greater toxicity on AML cell lines and primary AML cells (Figure 1f, n=50) in comparison to the normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) and normal CD34+ cells. Taken together, these findings highlight the selective specificity of these combinations and its clinical potential in AML.

Figure 1 Figure 1.

Disclosures

Augustin: Christian Medical College: Patents & Royalties: US 2020/0345770 A1 - Pub.Date Nov.5, 2020; AML: Other: Co-Inventor. Krishna: Christian Medical College: Patents & Royalties: US 2020/0345770 A1 - Pub.Date Nov.5, 2020; KCM Vellore: Patents & Royalties; SGUL: Patents & Royalties; AML: Other: Co-Inventor. Mathews: Christian Medical College: Patents & Royalties: US 2020/0345770 A1 - Pub.Date Nov.5, 2020; AML: Other: Co-Inventor.