Targeted inhibition of TET1 transcription as a potent therapeutic strategy for acute myeloid leukemia

Effective therapy of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains an unmet need. DNA methylcytosine dioxygenase Ten-eleven translocation 1 (TET1) is a potent oncogene in AML. Through a series of data analysis and drug screening, we identified two compounds (i.e., NSC-311068 and NSC-370284) that selectively suppress TET1 transcription and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) modification, and effectively inhibit cell viability in AML with high level expression of TET1 (i.e., TET1-high AML), including AML carrying t(11q23)/MLL-rearrangements and t(8;21) AML. NSC-311068 and especially NSC-370284 significantly repressed TET1-high AML progression in vivo. UC-514321, an optimized derivative of NSC-370284, exhibited an even more potent therapeutic effect and prolonged the median survival of TET1-high AML mice over three folds. NSC-370284 and its derivative showed strong synergistic effects with standard chemotherapy. NSC-370284 directly targeted STAT3/5, transcriptional activators of TET1, and thus repressed TET1 expression. Our results highlight the therapeutic potential of targeting the STAT/TET1 axis by selective inhibitors in AML treatment. Overall design: Selective 5hmC chemical labeling approach to profile genome-wide 5hmC distributions across different samples