Essential role for telomerase in chronic myeloid leukemia induced by BCR-ABL in mice

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The telomerase protein is constitutively activated in malignant cells from many patients with cancer, including the chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), but whether telomerase is essential for the pathogenesis of this disease is not known. Here, we used telomerase deficient mice to determine the requirement for telomerase in CML induced by BCR-ABL in mouse models of CML. Loss of one telomerase allele or complete deletion of telomerase prevented the development of leukemia induced by BCR-ABL. However, BCR-ABL was expressed and active in telomerase heterozygous and null leukemic hematopoietic stem cells. These results demonstrate that telomerase is essential for oncogene-induced reprogramming of hematopoietic stem cells in CML development and validate telomerase and the genes it regulates as targets for therapy in CML.
Research in ISG group was partially supported by FEDER and by MICINN (SAF2009-08803 to ISG), by Junta de Castilla y León (REF. CSI007A11-2 and Proyecto Biomedicina 2009-2010), by MEC OncoBIO Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (Ref. CSD2007-0017), by NIH grant (R01 CA109335-04A1), by Sandra Ibarra Foundation, and the ARIMMORA project (FP7-ENV-2011, European Union Seventh Framework Program) and by Proyecto en Red de Investigación en Celulas Madre Tumorales en Cancer de Mama, supported by Obra Social Kutxa y Conserjería de Sanidad de la Junta de Castilla y Leon. All Spanish funding is co-sponsored by the European Union FEDER program. ISG is an API lab of the EuroSyStem project.