Association Between the Proficiency of B-Cell Receptor Signaling and the Relative Expression Levels of ZAP-70, SHIP-1, and Mir-155 in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

The immunoglobulin (Ig) repertoire expressed in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) appears highly selected, suggesting that stimulation of the B-cell receptor (BCR) by unknown self or environmental antigen(s) likely contributes to the pathogenesis and/or progression of this disease. Ligation of the BCR by F(ab)2 anti-μ can induce phosphorylation of p72Syk, BLNK, phospholipase Cgamma and other downstream adapter/signaling molecules, inducing intracellular calcium flux and cellular activation. Prior studies found that CLL cells that expressed unmutated Ig heavy-chain variable region genes (IGHV) and/or the zeta-associated protein of 70 kD (ZAP-70) generally experienced greater levels of activation following treatment with anti-μ than did CLL cells that use mutated IGHV and/or that lacked expression of ZAP-70. However, unusual cases that expressed mutated IGHV or that lack expression of ZAP-70 also were well stimulated by treatment with anti-μ, suggesting that other factors contribute to the noted differences in BCR-signaling observed between cases of CLL. We found that cases that used unmutated IGHV and that expressed ZAP-70 could be distinguished from cases that used mutated IGHV and that lacked expression of ZAP-70 by interrogating for differences in expression of selected microRNA, which are short non-coding RNA that each govern the post-transcriptional expression of a discrete set of genes. We focused attention on expression of miR-155, which generally is expressed at higher levels in CLL cells that express unmutated IGHV and ZAP-70 than CLL cells that use mutated IGHV and that lack ZAP-70. One of the putative target genes regulated by this microRNA is SHIP-1, a phosphatase that plays a critical role in modulating BCR signaling. We examined the MicroRNA-155 expression in CLL B cells and compared these values with the relative expression levels of SHIP-1 protein or ZAP-70 and use of unmutated IGHV. The relative levels of miR-155 were determined by real-time PCR. CLL B cells were stimulated with anti-μ or control Ig for 10 minutes and then examined for relative protein phosphorylation by flow cytometric and immunoblot analyses. CLL cases were segregated into groups with high-BCR signaling versus low BCR-signaling based on the relative levels of phosphorylation observed on signaling/adapter proteins following treatment with anti-μ. CLL cells with high-BCR signaling potential expressed significantly higher levels of miR-155 (1.62±0.33) than did CLL cells with low-BCR signaling potential (0.42±0.13, p<0.05). We also examined for SHIP-1 protein by flow cytometry and phosphorylated SHIP-1 by immunoblot analyses. These analyses revealed that the expression levels of SHIP-1 protein inversely correlated with the expression levels of miR-155 in CLL and the proficiency of BCR-signaling. Moreover, CLL cells with high BCR-signaling potential had significantly lower amounts of SHIP-1 protein, and significantly higher relative levels of phosphorylated SHIP-1 following treatment with anti-μ, than did CLL cells with low BCR-signaling potential. Although SHIP-1 protein was significantly more abundant in cases that lacked ZAP-70 than in cases that expressed ZAP-70, we identified cases that lacked ZAP-70 and had low levels of SHIP-1 that also experienced high-levels of BCRsignaling following treatment with anti-μ. These results indicate that the proficiency of BCR-signaling in CLL could be influenced by the relative levels of ZAP-70 and SHIP-1, at least the latter of which appears regulated by microRNA that are differentially expressed in aggressive versus indolent cases of CLL.