Pooled shRNA Library Screening to Identify Factors that Modulate a Drug Resistance Phenotype

J Vis Exp. 2022 Jun 17:(184):10.3791/63383. doi: 10.3791/63383.

Abstract

Understanding clinically relevant driver mechanisms of acquired chemo-resistance is crucial for elucidating ways to circumvent resistance and improve survival in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A small fraction of leukemic cells that survive chemotherapy have a poised epigenetic state to tolerate chemotherapeutic insult. Further exposure to chemotherapy allows these drug persister cells to attain a fixed epigenetic state, which leads to altered gene expression, resulting in the proliferation of these drug-resistant populations and eventually relapse or refractory disease. Therefore, identifying epigenetic modulations that necessitate the survival of drug-resistant leukemic cells is critical. We detail a protocol to identify epigenetic modulators that mediate resistance to the nucleoside analog cytarabine (AraC) using pooled shRNA library screening in an acquired cytarabine-resistant AML cell line. The library consists of 5,485 shRNA constructs targeting 407 human epigenetic factors, which allows high-throughput epigenetic factor screening.

Publication types

  • Video-Audio Media
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cytarabine* / pharmacology
  • Cytarabine* / therapeutic use
  • Drug Resistance
  • Humans
  • Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* / drug therapy
  • Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* / genetics
  • Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* / metabolism
  • Phenotype
  • RNA, Small Interfering / genetics
  • RNA, Small Interfering / therapeutic use

Substances

  • RNA, Small Interfering
  • Cytarabine