PurposeAcute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease with poor outcomes. Despite increased evidence shows that dysregulation of histone modification contributes to AML, specific drugs targeting key histone modulators are not applied in the clinical treatment of AML. Here, we investigated whether targeting KDM6B, the demethylase of tri-methylated histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3), has a therapeutic potential for AML.MethodsA KDM6B-specific inhibitor, GSK-J4, was applied to treat the primary cells from AML patients and AML cell lines in vitro and in vivo. RNA-sequencing was performed to reveal the underlying mechanisms of inhibiting KDM6B for the treatment of AML.ResultsHere we observed that the mRNA expression of KDM6B was up-regulated in AML and positively correlated with poor survival. Treatment with GSK-J4 increased the global level of H3K27me3 and reduced the proliferation and colony-forming ability of primary AML cells and AML cell lines. GSK-J4 treatment significantly induced cell apoptosis and cell-cycle arrest in Kasumi-1 cells, and displayed a synergistic effect with cytosine arabinoside. Notably, injection of GSK-J4 attenuated the disease progression in a human AML xenograft mouse model in vivo. Treatment with GSK-J4 predominantly resulted in down-regulation of DNA replication and cell-cycle-related pathways, as well as abrogated the expression of critical cancer-promoting HOX genes. ChIP-qPCR validated an increased enrichment of H3K27me3 in the transcription start sites of these HOX genes.ConclusionsIn summary, our findings suggest that targeting KDM6B with GSK-J4 has a therapeutic potential for the treatment of AML.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00432-018-2631-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

ASXL1 mutations are found in a spectrum of myeloid malignancies with poor prognosis. Recently, we reported that Asxl1+/− mice develop myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or MDS and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) overlapping diseases (MDS/MPN). Although defective erythroid maturation and anemia are associated with the prognosis of patients with MDS or MDS/MPN, the role of ASXL1 in erythropoiesis remains unclear. Here, we showed that chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) patients with ASXL1 mutations exhibited more severe anemia with a significantly increased proportion of bone marrow (BM) early stage erythroblasts and reduced enucleated erythrocytes compared to CMML patients with WT ASXL1. Knockdown of ASXL1 in cord blood CD34+ cells reduced erythropoiesis and impaired erythrocyte enucleation. Consistently, the BM and spleens of VavCre+;Asxl1f/f (Asxl1∆/∆) mice had less numbers of erythroid progenitors than Asxl1f/f controls. Asxl1∆/∆ mice also had an increased percentage of erythroblasts and a reduced erythrocyte enucleation in their BM compared to littermate controls. Furthermore, Asxl1∆/∆ erythroblasts revealed altered expression of genes involved in erythroid development and homeostasis, which was associated with lower levels of H3K27me3 and H3K4me3. Our study unveils a key role for ASXL1 in erythropoiesis and indicates that ASXL1 loss hinders erythroid development/maturation, which could be of prognostic value for MDS/MPN patients.

Somatic or de novo mutations of Additional sex combs-like 1 (ASXL1) frequently occur in patients with myeloid malignancies or Bohring-Opitz syndrome, respectively. We have reported that global loss of Asxl1 leads to the development of myeloid malignancies and impairs bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) fates in mice. However, the impact of Asxl1 deletion in the BM niche on hematopoiesis remains unclear. Here, we showed that BMSCs derived from chronic myelomonocytic leukemia patients had reduced expression of ASXL1, which impaired the maintaining cord blood CD34+ cell colony-forming capacity with a myeloid differentiation bias. Furthermore, Asxl1 deletion in the mouse BMSCs altered hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSC/HPC) pool and a preferential myeloid lineage increment. Immunoprecipitation and ChIP-seq analyses demonstrated a novel interaction of ASXL1 with the core subunits of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) complex. Convergent analyses of RNA-seq and ChIP-seq data revealed that loss of Asxl1 deregulated RNAPII transcriptional function and altered the expression of genes critical for HSC/HPC maintenance, such as Vcam1. Altogether, our study provides a mechanistic insight into the function of ASXL1 in the niche to maintain normal hematopoiesis; and ASXL1 alteration in, at least, a subset of the niche cells induces myeloid differentiation bias, thus, contributes the progression of myeloid malignancies.