Yasunobu Nagata, Kenji Kontani, Terukazu Enami, Keisuke Kataoka, Ryohei Ishii, Yasushi Totoki, Tatsuki R. Kataoka, Masahiro Hirata, Kazuhiro Aoki, Kazumi Nakano, Akira Kitanaka, Mamiko Sakata-Yanagimoto, Sachiko Egami, Yuichi Shiraishi, Kenichi Chiba, Hiroko Tanaka, Yusuke Shiozawa, Tetsuichi Yoshizato, Hiromichi Suzuki, Ayana Kon, Kenichi Yoshida, Yusuke Sato, Aiko Sato-Otsubo, Masashi Sanada, Wataru Munakata, Hiromi Nakamura, Natsuko Hama, Satoru Miyano, Osamu Nureki, Tatsuhiro Shibata, Hironori Haga, Kazuya Shimoda, Toshiaki Katada, Shigeru Chiba, Toshiki Watanabe, Seishi Ogawa
BLOOD, 127(5) 596-604, Feb, 2016 Peer-reviewed
Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is a distinct form of peripheral T-cell lymphoma with poor prognosis, which is caused by the human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1). In contrast to the unequivocal importance of HTLV-1 infection in the pathogenesis of ATLL, the role of acquired mutations in HTLV-1 infected T cells has not been fully elucidated, with a handful of genes known to be recurrently mutated. In this study, we identified unique RHOA mutations in ATLL through whole genome sequencing of an index case, followed by deep sequencing of 203 ATLL samples. RHOA mutations showed distinct distribution and function from those found in other cancers. Involving 15% (30/203) of ATLL cases, RHOA mutations were widely distributed across the entire coding sequence but almost invariably located at the guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-binding pocket, with Cys16Arg being most frequently observed. Unexpectedly, depending on mutation types and positions, these RHOA mutants showed different or even opposite functional consequences in terms of GTP/guanosine diphosphate (GDP)-binding kinetics, regulation of actin fibers, and transcriptional activation. The Gly17Val mutant did not bind GTP/GDP and act as a dominant negative molecule, whereas other mutants (Cys16Arg and Ala161Pro) showed fast GTP/GDP cycling with enhanced transcriptional activation. These findings suggest that both loss-and gain-of-RHOA functions could be involved in ATLL leukemogenesis. In summary, our study not only provides a novel insight into the molecular pathogenesis of ATLL but also highlights a unique role of variegation of heterologous RHOA mutations in human cancers.