PROM1/CD133 MARKS A PROLIFERATIVE STEM CELL LIKE POPULATION OF BLASTS IN KMT2A REARRANGED INFANT ALL

Among pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL), KMT2A-rearranged infant ALL (KMT2Ar iALL) carries a particularly poor prognosis due to high rates of treatment-refractory or relapsing disease. Mechanistically, KMT2Ar drives aggressive disease through epigenetic dysregulation of multiple genes as a direct effect of expression of KMT2A-fusion proteins, most commonly KMT2A::AFF1, in leukemic cells. We previously showed that one of the top 2 most dysregulated genes, PROM1 (Prominin-1), encodes the cell surface protein prominin-1/CD133 and that this is essential for proliferation of KMT2A::AFF1+ cell lines. Here we show that PROM1 gene expression and cell surface CD133 expression specifically mark a highly proliferative subset of KMT2A::AFF1 blasts both in primary patient samples and in our highly physiologically relevant, primary human fetal liver HSPC-derived KMT2A::AFF1 ALL model (CRISPRKMT2A::AFF1 ALL). CD133+ CRISPRKMT2A::AFF1 blasts, but not CD133- CRISPRKMT2A::AFF1 blasts, exhibit a stem-cell gene expression profile and drive more aggressive disease in vivo. Furthermore, CRISPR-mediated inactivation of PROM1 reduces leukemic proliferation and prolongs survival of mice transplanted with CRISPRKMT2A::AFF1 blasts. These data show that PROM1/CD133 expression has an important functional role in CRISPRKMT2A::AFF1 ALL, and supports targeting PROM1/CD133 by pharmacological or immunotherapy-based approaches in KMT2A::AFF1 iALL.