Abstract 1114: IGFBP7 reduces acute myeloid leukemia stem cell survival without affecting normal hematopoiesis
Authors: Verhagen Han J. , Gils Noortje van , Rhenen Anna van , Rutten Arjo , Smit Marjon , Tsui Mei-Ling , Klootwijk Louise L. de Vos , Menezes Renee X. , Cil Meyram , Roemer Margaretha G. , Brocco Fabio , Denkers Fedor , Vermue Eline , Heukelom Stan , Zweegman Sonja , Janssen Jeroen J. , Ossenkoppele Gert J. , Schuurhuis Gerrit Jan , Smit Linda 
Published: August 2018

Only 30-40% of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients survive five years after diagnosis. This poor prognosis is mainly caused by treatment failure due to chemotherapy resistance and relapse. Leukemic stem cells (LSCs) are thought to be the major determinants of AML relapse due their potential for self-renewal and chemotherapy resistance. It has been demonstrated that LSC frequency and expression of LSC gene expression signatures is highly predictive of therapy failure in AML patients, indicating the clinical importance of LSCs. LSCs co-reside with residual normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in the diseased bone marrow. Increasing the dose of chemotherapy might eliminate LSCs, however will inevitable result in non-specific elimination of HSCs, delaying or preventing recovery of normal hematopoiesis after treatment. To significantly improve AML patients outcome, there is an urgent need for identification of alternative therapies that specifically eliminate LSCs while sparing HSC. We generated gene expression profiles of HSCs, LSCs and leukemic progenitors all derived from the same AML bone marrow and identified insulin growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) as one of the top differentially expressed genes. We found that low IGFBP7 is a feature of LSCs, associated with reduced chemotherapy sensitivity and that IGFBP7 is frequently downregulated at relapse as compared to AML diagnosis. Together, these results suggest that there is a survival advantage of IGFBP7low AML cells during chemotherapy treatment. To test whether increasing IGFBP7 levels might be a strategy to deplete leukemic (stem) cells, we overexpressed IGFBP7 or added recombinant human IGFBP7 (rhIGFBP7) to primary AML cells. Strikingly, IGFBP7 overexpression or addition of rhIGFBP7 led to induction of differentiation and cell death in AML patient cells. Moreover, rhIGFBP7 reduces leukemic engraftment in an AML xenograft mouse model, reverses a stem-like gene signature, and inhibits AML blast and leukemic stem/progenitor cell survival in vitro and in vivo, while it had no influence on normal hematopoietic (stem) cell survival. Our findings define an association between chemotherapy sensitivity and IGFBP7 expression levels in primary AML cells, and indicate that treatment of AML patients with a combination of rhIGFBP7 and chemotherapy might reduce AML residual disease and LSC survival.

Citation Format: Han J. Verhagen, Noortje van Gils, Anna van Rhenen, Arjo Rutten, Marjon Smit, Mei-Ling Tsui, Louise L. de Vos Klootwijk, Renee X. Menezes, Meyram Cil, Margaretha G. Roemer, Fabio Brocco, Fedor Denkers, Eline Vermue, Stan Heukelom, Sonja Zweegman, Jeroen J. Janssen, Gert J. Ossenkoppele, Gerrit Jan Schuurhuis, Linda Smit. IGFBP7 reduces acute myeloid leukemia stem cell survival without affecting normal hematopoiesis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1114.