ALBERT

Description: Abstract 2399 Activation of the Hedgehog (Hh)/glioma-associated oncogene (GLI) pathway has been found in a growing number of malignancies. We have provided evidence that canonical Hh signaling is required for cell survival and proliferation of DLBCL cell lines. To confirm the pathogenic role of GLI1 in DLBCL, we established GLI1 knock down DLBCL cell lines (OCI-Ly19, HBL-1 and BJAB) using a lentiviral shRNA system and performed cell viability and apoptosis assays. Cell viability assays demonstrated that GLI1 knockdown DLBCL cells experienced a statistically significantly decrease in the number of viable cells in comparison with control cells harboring scramble shRNA. To examine whether decreases number of cell viability in GLI1 knock down cells were due to apoptosis, we performed annexin V and PI assays. We observed marked increase of apoptosis in GLI1 knock down DLBCL cells versus controls (2.5 fold increase for OCI-Ly10, and 5 fold for HBL1 and BJAB). To investigate the mechanism by which GLI1 regulates tumorigenesis and cell survival, we searched for whole genome GLI1-target genes in DLBCL cells using CHIP sequencing technique and identified AKT genes as potential targets of GLI1. Using pharmacological and silencing approaches, we observed that Hh signaling modulates the expression of AKT genes in DLBCL cells. We further identified two putative binding sites for GLI1 in the AKT1 promoter region and confirmed their functionality using chromatin immunoprecipitation, luciferase reporter and site-directed mutagenesis assays. To investigate whether there is any correlation between AKT1 and GLI1 mRNA expression in human DLBCL tumors, we performed quantitative real-time PCR analyses in 17 frozen DLBCL specimens including apharesis samples from pleural effusions. The real time PCR analysis revealed a strong Spearmen correlation coefficient (R2=0.9) between GLI1 and AKT1 mRNA expression. In summary, we provide evidence of the role of GLI1 in the pathobiology of DLBCL and demonstrated a cross talk, at the transcriptional level, between Hh signaling and AKT in DLBCL. A link between these 2 pathways at the trasncriptional level was not previoulsy documented. This finding is of clinical interest as AKT has a key role in lymphoma cell survival and constitutive activation of AKT has been described in DLBCL. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Description: Abstract 1298 Aberrant activation of hedgehog (Hh) and NF-kB pathways contribute to tumor cell growth, survival and chemotolerance in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Previously, we documented a functional crosstalk between hedgehog (Hh) and NF-kB pathways that contribute to tumor cell growth and survival in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). However, the molecular mechanisms that link Hh with NF-kB pathway have not been defined. Based on that smoothened (SMO) has been associated with heterotrimeric G protein members of the Gα i family and established as a GPCRs-like protein, we hypothesize that GPCRs-related mechanisms such as the protein kinase C (PKC)-CARMA1-BCL10/MALT1/TRAF6 axis may contribute to SMO-dependent activation of NF-kB. First, we confirmed that SMO contributes to the activity of total PKC in 293T and DLBCL cells. Transiently or stably silencing of SMO resulted in decreased total PKC activity in comparison with the controls, while overexpression of SMO resulted in increased activity of PKC. Cyclopamine-KAAD or recombinant Shh N-terminal peptide resulted in decrease or increase of the total activity of PKC, respectively. As PKC isoforms β-1 and β-2 are the major isoforms expressed in B-lymphocytes that mediates NF-kB activation induced by activation of the B-cell receptor, we assessed the activation status of these two isoforms in response to changes of SMO activity. Inhibiting SMO with cyclopamine-KAAD or silencing SMO by siRNA decreased the phosphorylation status of PKCβ-1 and −2. In contrast, activating SMO with Shh N-terminal peptide increased the phosphorylation of PKCβ-1 and −2. Next, we assessed if SMO can modulated the activity of CARMA1. CARMA1 is a scaffold protein that serves to integrate the upstream signal of PKCs with downstream effectors in hematopoietic cells. We found that cyclopamine-KAAD or silencing SMO by siRNA decreased the phosphorylation status (inactivation) of CARMA1 and that activation of SMO with Shh N-terminal peptide increased the phosphorylation (activation) of CARMA 1. Because the polyubiquitination of TRAF6 and NEMO (IKKg) at lysine 63 (K63) are important events in propagating NF-kB signaling we examined the effect of overexpressing SMO on K63 polyubiquitination of TRAF6 and NEMO. Overexpression of SMO resulted in increased polyubiquitination of TRAF6 and NEMO at K63 supporting NF-kB pathway activation. TRAF6 is involved in activation of TAK1 and the IKK complex, resulting in translocation of NF-kB to the nucleus and activation of NF-kB. Silencing SMO by shRNA decreased total levels of TRAF6 that was associated with faster proteosomal degradation of TRAF6 in 293T cells. Inhibition of SMO with cyclopamine-KAAD also decreased the total levels of TRAF6 in DLBCL cells. In addition, overexpression of SMO (including a constitutively active mutated SMO) in 293T cells caused increase of TRAF6 expression by decreased polyubiquitination of TRAF6 at lysine 48 (K48) that targets TRAF6 for proteosomal degradation. In summary, altogether, these findings support that at least one mechanism by which SMO contributes to modulate activation of NF-kB is through the activation of the axis PKCβ/CARMA1/TRAF6/NEMO and stabilization and blocking degradation of TRAF6. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Description: Key Points IKKβ, independently of NF-κB, regulates the stability and transcriptional activity of GLI1 oncogene. Combined inhibition of IKKβ and GLI1 activities synergistically decreases DLBCL cell viability in vivo and in vitro.

Description: Hedgehog (Hh) signaling plays an important role in the pathobiology of B-cell malignancies including diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The GLI family members that include GLI1, GLI2 and GLI3 are Hh signaling transcription factors. While most research has focused on smoothened (SMO), Hh transducer receptor subunit, many lines of evidence indicate that other signaling pathways can activate GLI transcription factors. GLI1 is a zinc finger transcription factor and established oncogene. GLI1 expression increases in response to Hh signaling activation and potentiates the transcriptional output of Hh signaling. We previously demonstrated that the canonical Hh ligand-PTCH1-SMO-GLI axis is functional and plays an important role in cell proliferation, survival and chemotolerance in DLBCL (Leukemia 2010 and Oncogene 2011). Moreover, using stable GLI1 knockdown DLBCL cell lines we found that GLI1 contributes to cell survival and proliferation of DLBCL (J Biol Chem 2013). However, our understanding of the mechanisms controlling the transcriptional activity of GLI1 is limited. To identify regulatory components that participate in the transcriptional regulation of GLI1, we explored GLI1 putative interacting proteins by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry following immuno-precipitation (IP) of endogenous GLI1. We found that the NF-κB kinase, IKKβ, is one of the proteins associated with GLI1. This finding was of interest as we found a positive correlation between NF-kB activity and Hh signaling in DLBCL (Blood 2013). To validate the functional interaction between endogenous GLI1 with IKKβ in-vivo, lysates of 293T cells were IP with GLI1 or control antibody and subjected to immunoblot analysis with antibodies recognizing IKKβ subunit and SuFu (known partner of GLI1) respectively. IKKβ and SuFu were co-immunoprecipitated with GLI1. To confirm these findings, 293T cells were transiently co-transfected with plasmids carrying GLI1 and FLAG-tagged IKKα and IKKβ wild-type or kinase dead (K44A) forms. Both forms (IKKα and IKKβ) were detected in the immunoprecipitated GLI1 protein complex, however only transfection of IKKβ resulted in abundance of GLI1 protein suggesting a functional role of IKKβ kinase in the regulation of GLI1 protein levels. The association (and nuclear co-localization) between IKKβ and GLI1 was confirmed in DLBCL cell lines and 293T cells by immunofluorescence studies. To investigate the role of IKKβ in the transcriptional activity of GLI1, we knocked down IKKβ gene in HBL1 (cells with CD79B mutation) cells using two independent IKKβ shRNAs. Silencing IKKβ resulted in a decrease of IKKβ expression associated with decreased levels of GLI1 and GLI1 downstrean targets (PTCH1, CCND1 and BCL2). To better understand the functional role of IKKβ kinase activity in the transcriptional regulation of GLI1 target genes, we explore the IKKβ dependent GLI1 phosphorylation sites. We co-transfected full length GLI1 and IKKβ plasmids in 293T cells and IKKβ-GLI1 complex were purified using anti-GLI1 antibody. Peptides resulting from digestion of GLI1 with several different proteases were analyzed by nanospray ion trap mass spectrometry. Seven phosphorylation sites in GLI1 C-terminal residues were identified during analysis of trypsin-digested GLI1 by mass spectrometry. These data suggest that IKKβ phosphorylates GLI1 and plays an important role in the regulation of GLI1 transcriptional activity. Because activation of NF-κB is a frequent event in DLBCL, our study will help to understand the cross talk between NF-κB and Hh signaling pathways and will open potential new avenues for targeted therapy in DLBCL. Disclosures: Vega: NIH: Research Funding; Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: Research Funding.

Description: Abstract 3483 Activated Hedgehog (HH) signaling was identified in our laboratory to contribute to cell survival, proliferation and chemotolerance of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) (Leukemia 2010;24:1025 & Oncogene 2011, in press). The HH receptor complex is integrated by two main proteins, smoothened (SMO) and patched-1 (PTCH1). SMO is a seven-transmembrane G protein-coupled receptor that transduces HH signal to the cytoplasm and has glioma-associated oncogene homologue (GLI) proteins as major signaling transcription effectors. PTCH1 is a 12 transmembrane protein that inhibits SMO in the absence of HH ligands. Here, we investigated potential cross talk between SMO with the activation status of PI3K/AKT and NF-kB, two relevant oncogenic pathways in DLBCL. Using a small interfering (si)RNA approach and DLBCL cell lines of germinal center (GC) and activated B-cell (ABC) type we found that the expression levels of SMO modulate the activation status of AKT and canonical NF-KB pathways in DLBCL cells of GC type and mainly AKT in those of ABC type. In DLBCL cells of GC cell type, silencing SMO resulted in decrease of the phosphorylation levels of ser473p-AKT and ser536p-P65 and silencing PTCH1 resulted in increase of the phosphorylation levels of both proteins. The same silencing experimental approach in DLBCL cells of ABC type resulted in similar modulation in the activation status of the AKT but not, or to less extent, in the activation of NF-kB pathway. The modulation of the activation status of the NF-KB pathway was also confirmed using protein nuclear extracts and DNA binding ELISA assays. In cells of both DLBCL subtypes, silencing of the SMO transcriptional effector GLI1 showed no changes in the activation status of both pathways. The modulation in the activation status of AKT and NF-KB was also detected using SMO inhibitors, cyclopamine-KAAD and HhAntag (Genentech Inc) or activators, purmorphamine and recombinant HH protein. Combinatorial treatments with increasing concentrations of SMO inhibitors (cyclopamine and HhAntag [1.6, 3.2 and 4.8 μM]) with minimal lethal doses of Ly294002 (PI3K inhibitor) or BAY-11 (NF-KB inhibitor) were also performed. Using cell viability, and apoptosis (Annexin-V) assays, we found that combined treatments of PI3K or NF-KB inhibitors with a SMO inhibitor resulted in an additive/synergistic decrease of cell viability and increase of apoptosis in comparison to the treatments with SMO inhibitors alone. Taken together, our data shed novel light on the contribution of SMO on the activation of PI3K/AKT and NF-kB pathways in DLBCL. Our data also provide a rationale to use SMO inhibitors in combination with inhibitors of other oncogenic pathways such as PI3K/AKT and/or NF-KB for the treatment of patients with DLBCL. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.