Knockdown of Hnrnpa0, a del(5q) Gene, Alters Myeloid Cell Fate in Murine Cells through Regulation of AU-rich Transcripts

The post-transcriptional control of mRNA stability plays a critical role in numerous biological functions, including the immune response, cell cycle regulation and DNA damage response. HNRNPA0, which encodes an RNA-binding protein shown to regulate transcript stability via binding to the AU-rich elements (AREs) of mRNAs, is located within the commonly deleted segment of 5q31.2 in therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (t-MNs) with a del(5q). We hypothesized that loss of HNRNPA0 leads to alterations in hematopoietic differentiation due to changes in the expression of its target AU-rich transcripts. Using RNAi interference to model Hnrnpa0 loss in primary murine cells and an experimental cell system, we found that reduced Hnrnpa0 expression leads to a shift from monocytic towards granulocytic differentiation. Microarray-based global expression profiling revealed that Hnrnpa0 knockdown disproportionally impacts ARE-containing transcripts and alters expression of myeloid specification genes. The biological importance of ARE-containing genes in myeloid neoplasms is further supported by changes in gene expression of ARE-mRNAs in t-MN del(5q) patients, predicted by pathway analysis to activate tumor growth. Together, our findings suggest that alterations in ARE-containing genes can positively regulate the cellular proliferation of del(5q) cells and implicate haploinsufficiency of HNRNPA0 as one of the key initiation mutations in the pathogenesis of t-MN.

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Young DJ, Stoddart A, Nakitandwe J, Chen SC, Qian Z, Downing JR, Le Beau MM