TOPK is regulated by PP2A and BCR/ABL in leukemia and enhances cell proliferation.

Although treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has improved with the development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), patients develop fatal blast crisis (BC) whilst receiving TKI treatment. Alternative treatments for cases resistant to TKIs are required. A serine/threonine protein kinase, T­lymphokine­activated killer cell­originated protein kinase (TOPK), is highly expressed in various malignant tumors. Binding of peptides to human leukocyte antigen was assessed via mass spectrometry in K562 CML cells. TOPK expression was assessed in various CML cell lines and in clinical samples obtained from patients with CML using reverse transcription­quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot assays. It was observed that TOPK was expressed abundantly in BCR/ABL­positive cell lines and at significantly higher levels in CML clinical samples compared with healthy donor samples. Overexpression of BCR/ABL or the presence of its inhibitor imatinib upregulated and downregulated TOPK expression, respectively, indicating that TOPK may be a target of BCR/ABL. TOPK inhibitor OTS514 suppressed proliferation of BCR/ABL­positive cell lines and colony formation of CD34­positive cells from patients with CML compared with lymphoma patients without bone marrow involvement. Furthermore, phosphorylation of TOPK was increased by protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) inhibitor okadaic acid and was decreased in the presence of PP2A activator FTY720 compared with untreated samples. As constitutive BCR/ABL activity and inhibition of PP2A are key mechanisms of CML development, TOPK may be a crucial signaling molecule for this disease. Inhibition of TOPK may control disease status of CML, even in cases resistant to TKIs.

The tryptophan derivative, tranilast, and conditioned medium with indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase-expressing cells inhibit the proliferation of lymphoid malignancies.

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is an enzyme that catalyzes tryptophan degradation and induces immunosuppression. Although IDO is an important factor that allows tumors to escape from immunological attack, its effect on lymphoid malignancies has not been fully revealed. We evaluated the expression of IDO in samples from patients with B-cell malignancies. The IDO expression in the tumor samples was comparable to those in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors and had mainly originated from non-B cell populations. We introduced IDO gene into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. We then cultured various cell lines using CHO- or CHO-IDO-conditioned medium. Compared with the CHO medium (CHO-CM), the CHO-IDO medium (IDO-CM) decreased the viability of lymphoid cell lines but not those of the non-lymphoid lines. Next, we examined the effects of tryptophan metabolites on lymphoid tumors, and revealed that the drug N-[3',4'-dimethoxycinnamoyl] anthranilic acid (tranilast), a synthetic derivative of the tryptophan metabolite, was able to repress proliferation and dose-dependently induce cell death of lymphoid cell lines. Tranilast induced the activation of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase, which is activated by cellular stress, in lymphoid cells. The effect of tranilast on lymphoid cells was independent of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) although tranilast has been reported to be an AhR agonist. Finally, the administration of tranilast decreased murine lymphoid tumor progression in vivo. These results indicated that IDO and tryptophan derivatives, particularly tranilast, can be tools for the therapy for lymphoid malignancies.