Inhibition of Casein Kinase 2 induces Cell Death in Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Cells with Different Mechanisms of Resistance to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors

Abstract

AbstractChronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disease characterized by the presence of a BCR-ABL oncogene. Despite the high performance of treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), about 30 % of patients develop resistance to therapy. To improve the outcome of CML therapy, the identification of new targets of treatment is needed. Here, we explored the Casein Kinase 2 (CK2) as a potential target for CML therapy. Previously, we detected increased phosphorylation of HSP90β Serine 226 in patients non-responding to TKIs imatinib and dasatinib. This site is known to be phosphorylated among others by CK2, which was also previously linked to CML resistance to imatinib. In the present work, we established six novel imatinib- and dasatinib-resistant CML cell lines and detected increased CK2 activation in all these resistant cells. A CK2 inhibitor, CX-4945, induced cell death of CML cells in both parental and resistant cell lines. In some cases, CK2 inhibition also potentiated the effects of TKI on cell metabolic activity. No effects of CK2 inhibition were observed in normal mononuclear blood cells from healthy donors and BCR-ABL negative HL60 cell line. Our data indicate that CK2 kinase supports CML cell viability even in cells with different mechanisms of resistance to TKI, and thus represents a potential target for treatment.