Abstract A55: Role of ID2 in acute myeloid leukemia progression and resistance to chemotherapy

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is thought to be maintained by quiescent leukemia stem cells (LSCs), which are resistant to chemotherapy and responsible for relapse. Recent evidence suggests that a subset of LSCs with higher oxidative phosphorylation and/or increased senescence are responsible for resistance to chemotherapy and relapse. While several genes have been identified that are associated with the maintain LSC maintenance and promote resistance and relapse, the precious molecular mechanism(s) are currently not known. Inhibitor of DNA binding (ID) proteins are a group of Helix-Loop-Helix (HLH) transcription regulators, which function as dominant regulators of other HLH proteins (E proteins) that are required for normal hematopoietic, muscle, neuronal and other cell development. We found that loss of ID2 expression in murine hematopoietic cells results in activation, differentiation, and exhaustion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). ID2 promotes quiescence by stabilizing HIF-1a expression. Analysis of TCGA data sets shows that high levels of ID2 expression is associated with reduced overall survival among AML patients, suggesting that ID2 may function to maintain LSCs. Similar to murine cells, knockdown (KD) of ID2 expression in human cord blood cells resulted in a loss of CD34+CD38− progenitors. Furthermore, knockdown of ID2 expression in the UT-7 AML cell line showed significantly reduced leukemogenic potential in NSG mice, suggesting that ID2 is required for AML cell growth in vivo. UT7-ID2-KD cell line shows significant reduction of colony number when cultured in low oxygen condition in vitro, suggesting a potential role of HIF protein. In comparison, overexpression (OE) of ID2 in the human AML cell line, MO7e, promotes their leukemic potential and burden in NSG mice in vivo, suggesting that ID2 may function to preserve LSC quiescence. Initial studies in primary AML-PDX cells showed reduced leukemic potential upon ID2 knock down. High level of ID2 expression is associated with poor chemotherapy response in patients. We found that MO7e-ID2-OE are resistance to Cytarabine (AraC), while UT7-ID2-KD are susceptible to AraC. Furthermore, we found that AML cell lines that survive AraC treatment show increased ID2 expression, suggesting that ID2 may promote survival of chemotherapy resistant AML cells. It has been reported that AraC resistance of AML cells is associated with increased senescence. We found that surviving UT7-ID2-KD cells after AraC treatment have significantly reduced senescence population compared to controls. Taken together, ID2 promotes normal murine and human HSC quiescence, and may function promote LSC maintenance and resistance to chemotherapy. Citation Format: Tanmoy Sarkar, Jennifer Lombardo, Shweta Singh, Kristbjorn O Gudmundsson, Holly M Morris, Shyam Saran, Jonathan R Keller. Role of ID2 in acute myeloid leukemia progression and resistance to chemotherapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome; 2023 Jan 23-25; Austin, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Blood Cancer Discov 2023;4(3_Suppl):Abstract nr A55.