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Projekt Druckansicht

Funktion der Tyrosinkinasen Lyn und Btk bei Hochrisiko-CLL

Fachliche Zuordnung Hämatologie, Onkologie
Förderung Förderung von 2013 bis 2021
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 226262100
 

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Tremendous advances regarding the therapy of CLL have been made with the development of small molecule kinase inhibitors targeting the B cell receptor (BCR)-associated kinases. Prominent examples for this class of agents are the successful treatment of CLL with the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib or the PI3Kδ inhibitor idelalisib. More recently, accumulating evidence has been created that essential effects of these inhibitors are not mediated by targeting the malignant B cell population directly but rather by shaping the dialogue of tumor cells with the microenvironment, the efficacy of BCR-associated kinase inhibition depends not only on the inhibition of B cell-autonomous functions but also by affecting several cell types within the lymphoid tumor microenvironment. Importantly, clinical observations are strongly supporting this evidence, because CLL patients treated with these kinase inhibitors showed a longlasting lymphocytosis following the rapid decrease of lymphadenopathy, indicating that leukemic cells lose their contact to the tumor microenvironment and undergo a relocation from lymphoid homing organs to the periphery. Given the broad expression of BCR-associated kinases such as Lyn and Btk in all tissues, their molecular functions, and particularly the effects of their inhibition in CLL should inevitably be studied beyond B cell biology. During the KFO funding periods, we created a new perspective on the role of these kinases by the use of mouse models, where the established CLL model, the Eµ-TCL1 transgenic mice were intercrossed with Lyn or Btk knockout mice. Our experiments surprisingly revealed that these kinases are crucial for the formation of a leukemic niche that fosters CLL development. In experiments where we transplanted leukemic cells into wild type versus Lyn- or Btk-deficient mice, the absence of Lyn or Btk in recipient mice significantly delayed leukemic progression, eventually leading to prolonged survival of the knockout recipient mice. This effect was explained at least in part by a reduced capacity of the knockout macrophages to support primary CLL cell survival. Collectively, our observations that knockout of Lyn in the TME could effectively hinder CLL development open a new avenue of research: An increased understanding of the molecular changes induced by Lyn/Btk in specific microenvironmental cell types could be used to therapeutically target its substrates and specific pathways that are essential for the expansion of CLL.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

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