Modulation of SF3B1 causes global intron retention and downregulation of the B-cell receptor pathway in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Modulation of SF3B1 causes global intron retention and downregulation of the B-cell receptor pathway in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Splicing factor SF3B1 is frequently mutated in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients and has been suggested as a potential therapeutic target. In this study, we performed RNA-seq analysis to evaluate the global impact of SF3B1 modulator sudemycin D6 (SD6) on alternative splicing. Our analysis revealed significant increases in global intron-retention in SD6-treated CLL cells. Pathway analysis of the genes associated with increased intron-retention suggested that B-cell receptor (BCR), protein ubiquitination, and PI3K signaling pathways were among the top canonical pathways being affected by SD6. The increases in intron-retention were inversely correlated with deceases in mRNA and protein levels of the affected BCR/PI3K pathway molecules such as BLNK, BTK, AKT1, PLCγ2 and PI3Kδ. SD6 also induced a time-dependent exon-skipping event in mRNA of MCL1 and resulted in significant down-regulation of another anti-apoptotic gene TRAF1, which may contribute to the SD6-induced apoptosis. Finally, SD6 can overcome the pro-survival and pro-growth signals and synergize with ibrutinib, idelalisib and venetoclax to induce apoptosis in primary CLL cells co-cultured with bone marrow stromal cells and in the presence of T-cell-derived cytokines. Cumulatively, these results provide a strong rationale for future clinical development of spliceosome modulators and combinatory therapies based on spliceosome modulators in CLL. Overall design: To determine the global impacts of SD6 treaments on transcriptome in CLL cells, we performed RNA-seq analysis in MEC1 and GM12878 cell lines treated with 125nM for three different time points (2, 6, and 24 hours), respectively.