Abdoul-Azize Souleymane, Zoubairi Rachid, Boyer Olivier
UMR 1234, Inserm, Univ Rouen Normandie, 22 Boulevard Gambetta, F-76000 Rouen, France.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 May 18;26(10):4822. doi: 10.3390/ijms26104822.
Mechanogated (MG) ion channels play a crucial role in mechano-transduction and immune cell regulation, yet their impact on blood cancers, particularly acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), remains poorly understood. This study investigates the pharmacological effects of GsMTx4, an MG channel inhibitor, in human ALL cells both in vitro and in vivo. Unexpectedly, we found that GsMTx4 remarkably increased basal calcium (Ca) levels in ALL cells through constitutive Ca entry and enhanced store-operated Ca⁺ influx upon thapsigargin stimulation. This increase in basal Ca signaling promoted ALL cell viability and proliferation in vitro. Notably, chelating intracellular Ca with BAPTA-AM reduces GsMTx4-mediated leukemia cell viability and proliferation. However, in vivo, GsMTx4 decreases cytosolic Ca levels in Nalm-6 GFP⁺ cells isolated from mouse blood, effectively countering leukemia progression and significantly extending survival in NSG mice transplanted with leukemia cells (median survival: GsMTx4 vs. control, 37.5 days vs. 29 days, = 0.0414). Our results highlight the different properties of GsMTx4 activity in in vitro and in vivo models. They also emphasize that Ca signaling is a key vulnerability in leukemia, where its precise modulation dictates disease progression. Thus, targeting Ca channels could offer a novel therapeutic strategy for leukemia by exploiting Ca homeostasis.
机械门控(MG)离子通道在机械转导和免疫细胞调节中起着至关重要的作用,但其对血液癌症,尤其是急性淋巴细胞白血病(ALL)的影响仍知之甚少。本研究调查了MG通道抑制剂GsMTx4在人ALL细胞中的体外和体内药理作用。出乎意料的是,我们发现GsMTx4通过组成性钙内流显著增加了ALL细胞中的基础钙(Ca)水平,并在毒胡萝卜素刺激后增强了储存-操作性Ca⁺内流。基础钙信号的这种增加促进了ALL细胞在体外的活力和增殖。值得注意的是,用BAPTA-AM螯合细胞内钙可降低GsMTx4介导的白血病细胞活力和增殖。然而,在体内,GsMTx4降低了从小鼠血液中分离的Nalm-6 GFP⁺细胞中的细胞溶质钙水平,有效对抗白血病进展,并显著延长了移植白血病细胞的NSG小鼠的生存期(中位生存期:GsMTx4组与对照组,37.5天对29天,P = 0.0414)。我们的结果突出了GsMTx4在体外和体内模型中活性的不同特性。它们还强调钙信号是白血病中的一个关键脆弱点,其精确调节决定了疾病进展。因此,通过利用钙稳态,靶向钙通道可为白血病提供一种新的治疗策略。