Ruolo anti-apoptotico della tirosin-chinasi Lyn nella leucemia linfatica cronica a cellule B

B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) is the commonest leukemia in the Western world and is characterized by the clonal expansion of small CD5+ B lymphocytes in the pheripheral blood, bone marrow and lymphoid organs, due to defective apoptosis. One of the crucial factors for the survival of B-CLL cells is the anomalous activity of a few enzymes such as the lipide kinase PI3K, the Ser/Thr kinase PKC and the tyrosine-kinases Syk and Lyn. My research focus was Src family kinase Lyn, which is overexpressed, constitutively active and delocalized in the cytosol within an aberrant multiprotein complex, in association with the molecular chaperone Hsp90, which in turn accounts for the high level of tyrosine-phosphorylation, ultimately contributing to the cancer phenotype of B-CLL cells. The aim of my PhD work was to identify Lyn’s cytosolic substrates potentially involved in the apoptosis resistance mechanisms observed in leukemia cells. Using biochemical and biomolecular methods as well as a bioinformatics approach, two potential substrates of Lyn were identified, namely the cysteine protease caspase-8 and the protein phosphatase-2A (PP2A). Firstly, we established that in B-CLL, the inactive zymogen of caspase-8, procaspase-8, is phosphorylated at Tyr380 by the cytosolic pool of Lyn, which brings about its inhibition and its structural rearrangements in a dymeric cytosolic form. The phosphorylation of Tyr380 of caspase-8 is abolished by the use of both the Lyn inhibitor dasatinib and the Hsp90 inhibitor geldanamycin, the latter of which also leads to the disassembly of the aberrant cytosolic complex and the drop in the Lyn’s cytosolic activity, resulting in the caspase-dependent apoptosis. Secondly, we verified that Lyn negatively affects the activity of one of the key factors in the modulation of cell survival signals, PP2A. Phosphorylation of the catalytic subunit of PP2A at Tyr307 causes inhibition of the phosphatase activity not only per se but also strengthening the interaction of PP2A with its cellular inhibitor SET, which is also overexpressed in B-CLL cells. As a result, PP2A is stably preserved in an inhibited form, which contributes to the persistence of prosurvival signals, in particular those mediated by the serine/threonine kinase Akt. Moreover, to identify new compounds able to activate PP2A in order to contrast survival signals in B-CLL, we tested fingolimod (FTY720), which is already known as a PP2A activator, currently in use in the treatment of multiple sclerosis and recently emerging as a pro-apoptotic factor in different types of cancer cells. Notably, the mechanism of action consists in the ability of fingolimod to bind to SET and hence remove this cellular inhibitor of PP2A from its catalytic subunit. Since this drug is used as an immunosuppressive agent, by virtue of its provoking the degradation of the sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor, and shows cardiovascular side effects, it might prove unsuitable in a more complex therapeutic strategy. Therefore, fingolimod structural analogues which could not interfere with the sphingosine receptors, but could still destabilize the PP2A/SET complex were designed and synthesized. One of these compounds, MP07-66, showed an effectiveness similar to fingolimod, as to both the ability to disrupting the PP2A/SET complex and inhibit the protein kinase Akt, this latter being vital in preserving the survival signals. This compound also was able to induce apoptosis in leukemia cells, which effect was further enhanced by the combination with dasatinib by a synergistic mechanism, further confirming the role of phosphorylation in the stability of PP2A/SET. In conclusion, this work identifies PP2A and Caspase 8 as substrates of the cytosolic aberrant activity of Lyn, confirming the key role of this tyrosine kinase in supporting multiple anti-apoptotic signals in the B-CLL. The molecular mechanisms of apoptosis resistance here identified may be potential targets in the development of new therapies for clinical use