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DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1550240
Investigating the functional interplay of IRX1 and IRX2 homeoprotein family members and MLL fusion proteins
The Iroquois 1 (IRX1) gene has been identified as a candidate gene that is strongly upregulated in t(4;11) leukemia patients which display a transcriptional downregulation of HOXA genes, a phenomenon that was associated even with a worse outcome (Trentin et al., 2009; Stam et al., 2010.). Here we present our cummulated data about Iroquois 1 and 2, both influencing the transcriptional properties of different key players assumed to be important for the leukemogenic process in MLL-rearranged leukemia cell. From our data we conclude that Iroquois proteins does not only counteract the molecular actions deriving from the MLL-AF4 protein, but increases HOXB4 and downstream stem cell targets thereof. We will summarize our results, demonstrating that IRX1 is one of the mechanisms for the aquirement of stem cell functions.
This work is supported by the grant DKS 2011.09 from the German Children Cancer Aid.