Activating mutations in the NT5C2 nucleotidase gene drive chemotherapy resistance in relapsed ALL

  • Gannie Tzoneva
  • , Arianne Perez-Garcia
  • , Zachary Carpenter
  • , Hossein Khiabanian
  • , Valeria Tosello
  • , Maddalena Allegretta
  • , Elisabeth Paietta
  • , Janis Racevskis
  • , Jacob M. Rowe
  • , Martin S. Tallman
  • , Maddalena Paganin
  • , Giuseppe Basso
  • , Jana Hof
  • , Renate Kirschner-Schwabe
  • , Teresa Palomero
  • , Raul Rabadan
  • , Adolfo Ferrando

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

306 Scopus citations

Abstract

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is an aggressive hematological tumor resulting from the malignant transformation of lymphoid progenitors. Despite intensive chemotherapy, 20% of pediatric patients and over 50% of adult patients with ALL do not achieve a complete remission or relapse after intensified chemotherapy, making disease relapse and resistance to therapy the most substantial challenge in the treatment of this disease. Using whole-exome sequencing, we identify mutations in the cytosolic 5′-nucleotidase II gene (NT5C2), which encodes a 5′-nucleotidase enzyme that is responsible for the inactivation of nucleoside-analog chemotherapy drugs, in 20/103 (19%) relapse T cell ALLs and 1/35 (3%) relapse B-precursor ALLs. NT5C2 mutant proteins show increased nucleotidase activity in vitro and conferred resistance to chemotherapy with 6-mercaptopurine and 6-thioguanine when expressed in ALL lymphoblasts. These results support a prominent role for activating mutations in NT5C2 and increased nucleoside-analog metabolism in disease progression and chemotherapy resistance in ALL.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)368-371
Number of pages4
JournalNature Medicine
Volume19
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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