TET2 lesions enhance the aggressiveness of CEBPA-mutant acute myeloid leukemia by rebalancing GATA2 expression

Abstract

The myeloid transcription factor CEBPA is recurrently biallelically mutated (i.e., double mutated; CEBPA^DM) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a combination of hypermorphic N-terminal mutations (CEBPA^NT), promoting expression of the leukemia-associated p30 isoform, and amorphic C-terminal mutations. The most frequently co-mutated genes in CEBPA^DM AML are GATA2 and TET2, however the molecular mechanisms underlying this co-mutational spectrum are incomplete. By combining transcriptomic and epigenomic analyses of CEBPA-TET2 co-mutated patients with models thereof, we identify GATA2 as a conserved target of the CEBPA-TET2 mutational axis, providing a rationale for the mutational spectra in CEBPA^DM AML. Elevated CEBPA levels, driven by CEBPA^NT, mediate recruitment of TET2 to the Gata2 distal hematopoietic enhancer thereby increasing Gata2 expression. Concurrent loss of TET2 in CEBPA^DM AML induces a competitive advantage by increasing Gata2 promoter methylation, thereby rebalancing GATA2 levels. Of clinical relevance, demethylating treatment of Cebpa-Tet2 co-mutated AML restores Gata2 levels and prolongs disease latency.

TET2 and GATA2 are two frequently co-mutated genes in CEBPA double mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Here the authors show that the underlying mechanism for this cooccurrence is for TET2 loss-of-function mutation to counteract the increase in GATA2 expression, which is disadvantageous to these type of AML cells.