B-cell receptor driven MALT1 activity regulates MYC signaling in mantle cell lymphoma

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a mature B-cell lymphoma characterized by poor clinical outcome. Recent studies revealed the importance of BCR signaling in maintaining MCL survival. However, it remains unclear which role MALT1, an essential component of the CARD11-BCL10-MALT1 (CBM) complex that transfers BCR signaling to the NF-kB pathway, plays in the biology of MCL. Here we show that a subset of MCLs is addicted to MALT1, as its inhibition by either RNA or pharmacologic interference induced cytotoxicity both in vitro and in vivo. Gene expression profiling following MALT1 inhibition demonstrated that MALT1 controls a MYC-driven gene expression network predominantly through increased MYC protein stability. Thus our analyses identify a previously unappreciated regulatory mechanism of MYC expression. Investigating primary mouse splenocytes, we could demonstrate that MALT1 induced MYC regulation is not restricted to MCL, but represents a common mechanism of MYC regulation. MYC itself is pivotal for MCL survival as its downregulation and pharmacologic inhibition induced cytotoxicity in all MCL models. Collectively, these results provide a strong mechanistic rationale to investigate the therapeutic efficacy in targeting the MALT1-MYC axis in MCL patients. Gene expression in Mino and Rec cells induced by treatment with 50 µM z-VRPR-fmk was compared with that induced by treatment with DMSO.