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Chronic myelogenous leukemia blast cell proliferation is inhibited by peptides that disrupt Grb 2-SoS complexes

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is commonly characterized by the presence of the p210 Bcr-Abl oncoprotein. Many downstream effectors of Bcr-Abl have been described, including activation of the Grb2-SoS-Ras–MAP kinase (Erk) pathway. The precise contributions of these signal-transduction proteins in CML blast cells in human patients are not yet well defined. To gain further insight into the importance of Grb2 for CML, peptides that disrupt Grb2-SoS complexes were tested. These high-affinity Grb2-binding peptides (HAGBPs) can autonomously shuttle into cells and function by binding to the N-terminal SH3 domain of Grb2. The HAGBPs were analyzed for their effects on Bcr-Abl–expressing cell lines and freshly isolated CML blast cells from patients. They induced a dramatic decrease in the proliferation of CML cell lines. This was not observed with pointmutated control peptides with abolished Grb2SH3(N) binding. As expected, Grb2SoS complexes were greatly diminished in the HAGBP-treated cells, and MAP kinase activity was significantly reduced as determined by an activation-specific phospho-MAPK antibody. Furthermore, cell fractions that are enriched for blast cells from CML patients with active disease were also incubated with the Grb2 blocker peptides. The HAGBPs led to a significant proliferation reduction of these cells in the majority of the isolates, but not in all patients’ cells. These results show that, in addition to the direct targeting of Bcr-Abl, selective inhibition of Grb2 protein complexes may be a therapeutic option for a significant number of CML patients. (Blood. 2001;98:1773-1781)