Article
作者: Olivieri, Jacopo ; Hartmann, Tanja Nicole ; Nicolò, Antonella ; Capasso, Guido ; Nanni, Paola ; Moia, Riccardo ; Pozzo, Federico ; Ianna, Giulia ; Zaja, Francesco ; Rossi, Davide ; Del Principe, Maria Ilaria ; Cattarossi, Ilaria ; Rossi, Francesca Maria ; Gentile, Massimo ; Maity, Palash C ; Gaglio, Annalisa ; Tissino, Erika ; Chiarenza, Annalisa ; Laureana, Roberta ; Del Poeta, Giovanni ; Gaidano, Gianluca ; Zucchetto, Antonella ; Jumaa, Hassan ; Forestieri, Gabriela ; Zimbo, Anna Maria ; Zaina, Eva ; Datta, Moumita ; Laurenti, Luca ; Härzschel, Andrea ; Palumbo, Giuseppe A ; Bomben, Riccardo ; D'Arena, Giovanni ; Martino, Enrica Antonia ; Bittolo, Tamara ; Gattei, Valter
In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), survival of neoplastic cells depends on microenvironmental signals at lymphoid sites where the crosstalk between the integrin VLA-4 (CD49d/CD29), expressed in ~40% of CLL, and the B-cell receptor (BCR) occurs. Here, BCR engagement inside-out activates VLA-4, thus enhancing VLA-4-mediated adhesion of CLL cells, which in turn obtain pro-survival signals from the surrounding microenvironment. We report that the BCR is also able to effectively inside-out activate the VLA-4 integrin in circulating CD49d-expressing CLL cells through an autonomous antigen-independent BCR signaling. As a consequence, circulating CLL cells exhibiting activated VLA-4 express markers of BCR pathway activation (phospho-BTK and phospho-PLC-γ2) along with higher levels of phospho-ERK and phospho-AKT indicating parallel activation of downstream pathways. Moreover, circulating CLL cells expressing activated VLA-4 bind soluble blood-borne VCAM-1 leading to increased VLA-4-dependent actin polymerization/re-organization and ERK phosphorylation. Finally, evidence is provided that ibrutinib treatment, by affecting autonomous BCR signaling, impairs the constitutive VLA-4 activation eventually decreasing soluble VCAM-1 binding and reducing downstream ERK phosphorylation by circulating CLL cells. This study describes a novel anchor-independent mechanism occurring in circulating CLL cells involving the BCR and the VLA-4 integrin, which help to unravel the peculiar biological and clinical features of CD49d+ CLL.