Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 gene internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD) mutations has a poor prognosis. The combination of arsenic trioxide (ATO) and all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) has a synergistic killing effect on leukemia cells with FLT3-ITD mutation. However, the mechanism, especially the changes of gene expression and metabolic activity remain unclear. Here we explore the transcriptome and metabolomics changes of FLT3-ITD AML cells treated with ATO/ATRA.
Methods: RNA-seq was used to identify differential expressed genes (DEGs), and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole electrostatic field orbital trap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QE-MS) nontargeted metabolomics method was used to screen out the differential metabolites in FLT3-ITD mutant cell lines treated with ATRA and ATO. KEGG pathway database was utilized for pathway exploration and Seahorse XF24 was used to detect extracellular acidification rate (ECAR). Metabolic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) array and real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) were used to detect mRNA levels of key metabolic genes of glycolysis and fatty acid after drug treatment.
Results: A total of 3873 DEGs were identified and enriched in 281 Gene Ontology (GO) terms, among which 210 were related to biological processes, 43 were related to cellular components, and 28 were related to molecular functions. Besides, 1794 and 927 differential metabolites were screened in positive and negative ion mode separately, and 59 different metabolic pathways were involved, including alanine-aspartate-glutamate metabolic pathway, arginine, and proline metabolic pathway, glycerophospholipid metabolic pathways, etc. According to KEGG Pathway analysis of transcriptome combined with metabolome, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway and fatty acid metabolism pathway were significantly founded enriched. ATRA + ATO may inhibit the glycolysis of FLT3-ITD AML cells by inhibiting FLT3 and its downstream AKT/HK2-VDAC1 signaling pathway.
Conclusions: The gene transcription profile and metabolites of FLT3-ITD mutant cells changes significantly after treatment, which might be related to the anti-FLT3-ITD AML effect. The screened DEGs, differential metabolites pathway are helpful in studying the mechanism of anti-leukemia effects and drug targets.
Keywords: ATO; ATRA; FLT3-ITD; metabolomics; transcriptomics.