From Steroid Resistance to Skeletal Defects: Navigating the Curiosities of Diamond Blackfan Anemia
January 27, 2021Lionel Blanc, PhD
Associate Professor, Molecular Medicine and Pediatrics, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
YCCEH Invited Speaker
January 21, 2021
Information
- ID
- 6142
- To Cite
- DCA Citation Guide
Transcript
- 00:00Thanks, Diane, I'm so sorry that I
- 00:02don't get to meet you in person's,
- 00:04of course, but it's always fun to to
- 00:07see you and talk science with you.
- 00:09So yeah, today I'm going to
- 00:11talk about 2 two main aspects
- 00:13of what we studying in the lab.
- 00:15The first one is really going to
- 00:17be from my first love and what I've
- 00:20been studying for the past 12 years,
- 00:22which is a ritual poiesis.
- 00:24And in the second part we're going
- 00:26to move towards something that I
- 00:28I was totally a Neo fit for the.
- 00:31And I would say, five years ago,
- 00:34four years ago,
- 00:35which is really looking into
- 00:38skeletal defects in this disease
- 00:40called Diamond Black fan anemia so.
- 00:43Here is my computer of course.
- 00:45OK, here is an overview of the
- 00:47talk in the first spot I'm going
- 00:50to give a general introduction on
- 00:52Diamond Black fan anemia because
- 00:54I'm not sure about the audience,
- 00:56but everyone knows about the disease.
- 00:58Then I'm going to get right into
- 01:00the subject and talk to you about
- 01:02this study that we published last
- 01:04year on the mechanism of action
- 01:07of steroids during normal and
- 01:09disordered humanary choices with a
- 01:10focus on Diamond black fan anemia,
- 01:12and I'll try to.
- 01:14To insist on understanding the
- 01:16developmental differences and
- 01:17the role of this protein P 57.
- 01:19Keep two in the mechanism of
- 01:22action of steroids and then.
- 01:24I will go to modeling the skeletal defects,
- 01:27observing DBA and I'll get back
- 01:29to Erato places at the end.
- 01:31But really the main take home
- 01:33message here is to understand
- 01:35that skeletal defects in Diamond
- 01:37Black fan anemia are mediated.
- 01:39In part, I would say by failure of Leo.
- 01:42Yeah,
- 01:43have you moved past the first slide or no?
- 01:47Yeah, it's not advancing on the screen.
- 01:50I don't know why I think we should.
- 01:55I shouldn't be the cohost Genie
- 01:58because it keeps popping in.
- 02:00You want to be the host?
- 02:02No,
- 02:03I don't want to be the host because I
- 02:06see all the people popping in here.
- 02:08So let me do something.
- 02:10What I was saying is really the
- 02:12take home that the skeletal
- 02:14defects in IVR mediated,
- 02:16in part by the failure of the
- 02:18mesenchymal lineages and how DBA can
- 02:20be a cancer predisposition syndrome
- 02:22and touch a little bit on that idea.
- 02:27Other side moving now. Yes, perfect.
- 02:30So as I mentioned just a little bit
- 02:33of introduction on the clinical
- 02:35features of Diamond Black fan anemia,
- 02:38it Sahara trade hyperplasia an you
- 02:40can see on this bone marrow smear.
- 02:43Although in the US physician don't do
- 02:46a smear anymore on this patients that
- 02:49the bone marrow is pretty normal except
- 02:52for a Pau city of era trade pictures is
- 02:55the patients have congenital anomalies.
- 02:57They have skeletal and growth
- 02:59defects which will be.
- 03:01Focus of the talk today in the second part.
- 03:04Here you can observe, for example,
- 03:06try financial firm in this patient.
- 03:08This was documented by Adriana Blouse
- 03:10and Jeff Lipton several times in
- 03:12the literature and they also have
- 03:14a cancer predisposition and I will
- 03:16insist on that because I think that's
- 03:19one of the most fascinating questions
- 03:21that remained in the field.
- 03:25So just a little bit of history here.
- 03:29The Diamond Black fan anemia,
- 03:31the classic diagnostic criteria was
- 03:33described by Joseph in 1936 and then
- 03:36rebuilt by Diamond Black Fan in 1938.
- 03:38First as pure red cell aplasia.
- 03:41That led to the classic definition of a
- 03:44moderate to severe microcytic anemia.
- 03:46And I'll get back to that at the end
- 03:50because that's what I've been a big
- 03:53problem in the field is to model.
- 03:55Diamond Black fan anemia in the classic
- 03:59mouse model systems that we have
- 04:01because it's very difficult to model A
- 04:04macrocytic anemia with an increase MCV.
- 04:07That is.
- 04:08I complained by reticular cytopenia,
- 04:10a decrease in reticular site due to
- 04:13stress erythropoiesis that happens in the
- 04:15spring in the mouse and as I mentioned,
- 04:18bone marrow is normal cylinder with
- 04:20opacity of red cell precursors.
- 04:22It's diagnosed at an age less than a year.
- 04:27But now we have expanded the definition
- 04:29of DBA with criteria that come with
- 04:32from a more robust Epidemiology as a
- 04:35result of international registries,
- 04:37and I will point out the importance
- 04:39of this clinical registries such as
- 04:42the one we have, a defined Steam,
- 04:45the diamond black fan anemia,
- 04:47registry of North America,
- 04:48but also the ones from Europe in the UK,
- 04:52Germany, Italy, Sweden.
- 04:53Of course France and many others.
- 04:55Gene discovery was very important in helping.
- 04:58Redefined the disease diamond black
- 05:00fan and 23 genes now like categorized
- 05:03as DBA jeans,
- 05:0511 of them discovered through the
- 05:07Diamond Black fan anemia registry
- 05:10and this led to a modern diagnostic
- 05:13criteria because at first Diamond
- 05:15Black fan was discovered as a mutation
- 05:18in a gene encoding ribosomal protein.
- 05:21Whether in the small subunit or
- 05:23in the large subunit.
- 05:25But now we've studies from Vigesaa,
- 05:28Karen and Overs.
- 05:29Getting one mutations and over new
- 05:31mutations found and we're rather call
- 05:34it Diamond black fan anemia syndromes
- 05:36rather than Diamond black fan anemia.
- 05:41OK, so from there where are we going?
- 05:45The damn little bit of wording of the
- 05:48Diamond Black fan anemia registry.
- 05:50As I told you DBA is a rare disease.
- 05:53It's about the incidence is about 7
- 05:56chameleon birth and that computes to
- 05:58about 25 to 30 new patients a year in
- 06:02the United States here at Feinstein
- 06:04in the registry we have about 800
- 06:06patients that are enrolled from Dad.
- 06:09About 788 are coming from North America
- 06:12and the male to female ratio is 1 to one.
- 06:16In the demographics we have 670 patients
- 06:19that are alive which allows us.
- 06:22Kind of a decent access to samples,
- 06:25and that's that's pretty good when
- 06:27you want to do translational research
- 06:29element back to that, 118 are dead.
- 06:32Unfortunately,
- 06:32the median age is 20 three years,
- 06:35So what did they die from?
- 06:37They died from stem cell transplant
- 06:39related complications from iron overload,
- 06:41which is a big issue and I'll get
- 06:43to that because these patients,
- 06:46when they are not steroid responsive,
- 06:48OK they are transfusion dependent
- 06:50and when they get transfusions over,
- 06:52transfusions over transfusions.
- 06:53Of course they accumulate.
- 06:55Iran and Iran is a big issue.
- 06:58They also die from infection,
- 07:00sepsis, often colon cancer,
- 07:02and obviously tumors or from other cancer.
- 07:08OK, the current therapies I touched on the
- 07:11peripheral red blood cells transfusions,
- 07:13but the mainstay of the treatment when a
- 07:15patient is diagnosed with diamond black
- 07:18fan anemia is really corticosteroids.
- 07:20OK, the only cure for the patient
- 07:22is a stem cell transplant.
- 07:25However Anile insist on that
- 07:27the stem cell transplant doesn't
- 07:29protect them from getting cancer.
- 07:31So this is a family that agreed of course
- 07:35to provide this picture and the dad.
- 07:38Is actually.
- 07:41Responsive to steroids and the two
- 07:44daughters have a different phenotype
- 07:46and so that the first daughter.
- 07:49OK here is also having anemia that
- 07:52is responsive to steroid while
- 07:55the second one is transfusion
- 07:57dependent and we really don't know
- 08:00why steroids within the same family
- 08:03can for example lead to a response.
- 08:07Or a resistance,
- 08:08and so that's a problem that one of my MD,
- 08:12PhD student, Ryan Ashley,
- 08:14decided to back off for his PhD
- 08:17is to understand the mechanism of
- 08:19action of glucocorticoids to increase
- 08:21the red cell mass.
- 08:23Because, as I mentioned,
- 08:24it was really unknown.
- 08:26It was really unclear.
- 08:27I should say not unknown but unclear at
- 08:30which stage during era trade differentiation,
- 08:33the glucocorticoids.
- 08:34And here I'm going to just mention
- 08:37dexamethasone in culture was acting.
- 08:39There was some studies that
- 08:41were saying that yeah,
- 08:42glucocorticoid acts early
- 08:44at the BFUE stage OK,
- 08:46especially in the mouse.
- 08:47While over more recent studies by mayor
- 08:50of Sokolowski had shown it was acting
- 08:53later on on the later progenitor,
- 08:55the CFV,
- 08:56while in the human aritro places early
- 08:59studies had showed demonstrated that
- 09:01it was acting on the late progenitor.
- 09:05Indeed,
- 09:05we're not reinventing the wheel right?
- 09:08In 1976 already studies.
- 09:10Beautiful studies had been done showing
- 09:13that demonstrating that the CFU in
- 09:16number was increased as we increase
- 09:20the dexamethasone concentration.
- 09:22So if we go into human arixtra places
- 09:25now everything is happening in the bone
- 09:28marrow from the hematopoietic stem cell,
- 09:30hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell,
- 09:32and here Diane will have to excuse me.
- 09:35But I'm going to bypass all the stages
- 09:38and not argue about which one is which.
- 09:41I'm just going to go directly
- 09:43to the BFG and to the BFUECFUE
- 09:46to the area trade progenitors,
- 09:48which is what is really of
- 09:50our interest today because the
- 09:52terminal differentiation wants.
- 09:54And progenitor is entering the terminal.
- 09:56Differentiation there is not
- 09:58so much that happens, it's.
- 10:00Committed,
- 10:01it's differentiated and you just have
- 10:03four to five cell divisions over 5 days.
- 10:06That leads to the
- 10:09orthochromatic erythrocytes.
- 10:10And the processes of a new creation
- 10:12that we still don't fully understand.
- 10:15Leading to the reticular site that
- 10:18remodels its plasma membrane,
- 10:19degrades all the internal
- 10:21compartments and become the red
- 10:24blood cell that leaves for 120 days.
- 10:27OK.
- 10:29So we started this study by an
- 10:33observation very crude observation.
- 10:35We took CD 34 positive cells the
- 10:38so called hematopoietic stem and
- 10:40progenitor cells that were derived
- 10:42weather from peripheral blood PB
- 10:44for the rest of the talk or from
- 10:46cold blood CB and what we observe
- 10:48this that when we treated these
- 10:50cells with dexamethasone we observed
- 10:53an increase in the cell expansion
- 10:55for the cells that will be derived,
- 10:57derived from an adult source compared
- 10:59to the ones that were derived from
- 11:02the cold blood and actually we
- 11:04saw a decrease in the expansion.
- 11:06And this to us was really intriguing.
- 11:09What was happening here?
- 11:10This was going against not the dogma,
- 11:13but against all the protocols that had
- 11:15been using dexamethasone in their culture.
- 11:17Here we were using a culture systems that
- 11:20was not using any steroids at baseline.
- 11:23So we decided to go deeper into
- 11:26the mechanism.
- 11:27And what we found thanks to the method
- 11:30and that Manada had developed to
- 11:32study the surface markers for Louise
- 11:35and then we validated everything.
- 11:38Of course, with colony forming assays,
- 11:40we observed that it's actually the CFU
- 11:42E from the peripheral blood treated
- 11:45with dexamethasone that we're expanding.
- 11:48You can observe here that none
- 11:50of the BFU is order.
- 11:52CFU is affected except for
- 11:54the peripheral blood treated.
- 12:00When we when we then sorted
- 12:02to cells OK on based on this
- 12:05surface marker expression by fax.
- 12:07By flow cytometry we started the cells.
- 12:10We observed that again it was DCF,
- 12:13UE so-called CFU Ian.
- 12:15Here on code on code because they were
- 12:17not derived from colony forming assays
- 12:20but by surface marker expression.
- 12:22We observed that these were the
- 12:25ones derived from peripheral blood.
- 12:27When we then validated the
- 12:29findings by Colony.
- 12:30Coming essays,
- 12:31we observed that indeed the surface
- 12:34area the colony area for the CFO
- 12:37is formed by peripheral blood were
- 12:39indeed the ones that were responding,
- 12:41and I would not hear that very
- 12:44puzzling and interesting here was
- 12:47that the cold blood at baseline,
- 12:49without dexamethasone,
- 12:50we're having kind of the same size
- 12:52surface area as the peripheral
- 12:55blood treated with dexamethasone,
- 12:56meaning that maybe and here
- 12:58is just speculation,
- 13:00because I have no proof of that, but.
- 13:03Maybe this cells were already.
- 13:06Maximum in their response.
- 13:11The best proof to us would be to
- 13:14go back to the patient, right?
- 13:16Because if we are writing what we are
- 13:19asserting that it's a late progenitor
- 13:21that respond to dexamethasone,
- 13:23we have to prove that in a patient with DB.
- 13:27So we took three patients.
- 13:29OK, that are known to respond to steroids
- 13:31and what we did is that we measure the
- 13:35response to steroid by measuring simply
- 13:37the reticle sight count in the blood.
- 13:40OK, in this patients.
- 13:41After treatment with steroids and
- 13:44so my good friend I knew Nola in her
- 13:46clinic had three patients that she
- 13:49was following and what we did is that
- 13:52she treated them with Prednisone in
- 13:54that case because it was in the clinic,
- 13:57not in vitro and then measure the blood cast.
- 14:00What she observed is that
- 14:02within 7 to 10 days a response.
- 14:04Heretical site response was observed.
- 14:06This if we go back to the basics of
- 14:09very true Poesis tells us that it
- 14:12has to come from a late progenitor.
- 14:15It cannot come for a very early
- 14:17progenitor very early BFUE,
- 14:19because as I showed you before
- 14:21in the diagram in the schematics
- 14:23of human erythropoiesis,
- 14:24it will take way much longer to
- 14:27come from an early progenitor.
- 14:29So having said that,
- 14:32having showed that probably it's.
- 14:34Kind of late for genital that
- 14:36respond to steroids.
- 14:38We decided to go further
- 14:39down into the mechanism,
- 14:41but before going further down
- 14:43into the mechanism we need it.
- 14:45To figure out this,
- 14:47heterogeneity of human error trade
- 14:50progenitors to really try to understand
- 14:53better what is going on here,
- 14:55because this.
- 14:56Hierarchy here, and you're not
- 14:59going to contradict me on that.
- 15:02Is that?
- 15:03Yeah, it's nice,
- 15:04but really it's BFU E2 CFUE,
- 15:06but what else in between?
- 15:08When you look at them under the microscope,
- 15:12the colony forming assays and here
- 15:14provided by young Cheyenne Mohans lab?
- 15:17This is the same plate.
- 15:19Well,
- 15:20it's kind of subjective because
- 15:22all these colonies have different
- 15:24sizes showing probably heterogeneity
- 15:26of the era trade progenitors.
- 15:28An indeed in a previous study we
- 15:32published in 2018 based on these
- 15:34two surface markers CD34 CD 36
- 15:37that would define the BF you
- 15:40here in the lower right quadrant,
- 15:42or the CFU is in the upper left quadrant.
- 15:46We observed again a difference
- 15:49between cornbread and peripheral
- 15:51blood because we observed a double
- 15:54positive population that was
- 15:56present for a long time in culture.
- 15:58In cells derived from peripheral blood,
- 16:01but not much more transient, incorporated.
- 16:05And so we took the bed.
- 16:07Kind of crazy bet that maybe.
- 16:10This double positive population was
- 16:13the one that was responding to steroids.
- 16:16So.
- 16:17We went further and decided to
- 16:20characterize this population.
- 16:21We added surface markers OK,
- 16:24we tested on SA,
- 16:25tested 10s of surface markers.
- 16:27I think an she observed that city
- 16:30105 and CD 71 was giving the best
- 16:35resolution to discriminate between
- 16:37what we call now the immature
- 16:40and mature CFU E.
- 16:42And indeed, when we put them plated them in.
- 16:46People only that give rise to see a few E.
- 16:49This is the definition of a CFU.
- 16:51It responds to Ipoh only.
- 16:53Or incomplete media to generate the beer,
- 16:56and so we there.
- 16:58It's indeed consistent with what she
- 17:00says is that it's it is this image you
- 17:04see FUE that has the potential that I
- 17:07didn't get a chance to answer yet as
- 17:11the potential forming both of them.
- 17:14The BSU and the CFU.
- 17:17OK, when it's placed under any media.
- 17:22So it's not yet a fully committed CFU,
- 17:25E, but it's not a BF UA also, of course.
- 17:28We need single sarony seek for that.
- 17:31To really look at them deeply
- 17:33and characterize them,
- 17:35but it's consistent with what Miraf said,
- 17:37and I'm going to go further down with
- 17:40that because of the mechanism of action.
- 17:43So I'm I'm not going to spend
- 17:45a lot of time here.
- 17:47It's basically this image you see a few.
- 17:50We did respond, but importantly.
- 17:52When we treat.
- 17:54With dexamethasone,
- 17:55we see a reduction of the S
- 17:57phase as may arrive.
- 17:59Did in the mature CFD population.
- 18:03And how is that working so we get
- 18:06into the cell cycle and into the
- 18:08mechanism of Regulation an yeah may
- 18:11have had done everything in the mouse,
- 18:14so that was pretty easy, quote, unquote.
- 18:17To answer,
- 18:17we had P 57 keep to that she had
- 18:21published in cell in Science Advances.
- 18:23OK, that was involved in the
- 18:27regulation of steroids.
- 18:28Indeed,
- 18:29what we observed is that in peripheral blood.
- 18:32OK, there was a downregulation of P57 very
- 18:34early on by the seven of differentiation.
- 18:37Here, we observed that P.
- 18:3957 was totally down,
- 18:41while in the cold blood it
- 18:44was still remaining.
- 18:46P 27 however,
- 18:47was gradually increasing over
- 18:49the 14 days of culture,
- 18:52and here is Alpha Globin's control.
- 18:57Then
- 19:00we looked at the purified CFU E and
- 19:02here really not looking at image
- 19:05services mature because we did not
- 19:07have enough cells to do the Western.
- 19:09So when I say see if you hear is the mix
- 19:13of the two and we observe an increase in
- 19:17the expression levels OK of P57 Kip 2.
- 19:20Under CFIA, derived from peripheral
- 19:22blood but not cold blood.
- 19:24P. 27 wasn't changed.
- 19:26So how do we relate that to DBA now?
- 19:33Well, we went back to our patients
- 19:35with DBA and as I told you the benefit
- 19:38of being part of the Diamond Black
- 19:41fan registries that you have access
- 19:43to samples and patients are really
- 19:45eager to contribute to studies.
- 19:47As I'm sure you know and so we
- 19:48had a transfusion dependent or
- 19:51the steroid responsive.
- 19:52Just a note, it's much easier to get
- 19:54blood from transfusion dependent than
- 19:56the steroid responsive because the
- 19:59steroid responsive don't come to.
- 20:00Clinic they just called to get a
- 20:02refill on their steroids because
- 20:04the treatment works so they don't
- 20:06need to come to clinic.
- 20:08However, the transfusion dependent
- 20:09come over and So what we observe
- 20:12is that the expansion.
- 20:13Was indeed very effective in
- 20:15the series responsive,
- 20:16but not in the transfusion dependent.
- 20:20And here I have to give credit
- 20:22to Ryan because he did a lot of
- 20:25experiments working on about
- 20:2720,000 cells to get Western blots.
- 20:30Because you have a pool city of very
- 20:33trade progenitors as I mentioned.
- 20:35But what we observed is exactly
- 20:38what Diane was asking.
- 20:39OK, and what we what we published is that P.
- 20:4357 OK is actually up regulated.
- 20:47Industry responsive and not into
- 20:50transfusion dependent patients.
- 20:54And so we leave.
- 20:55We left it here on that paper,
- 20:59although we undertook some proteomics
- 21:01and the data are available and in the
- 21:05paper that was published last year,
- 21:07if I can change the slide
- 21:10in JCI and there are over.
- 21:14The targets, notably one that I'm
- 21:16sure is of interest of several people
- 21:19in the audience, such as NL 41,
- 21:22another cell cycle regulator that
- 21:24has been involved in proliferation
- 21:27and differentiation and cancer,
- 21:29and we are actively following up on that.
- 21:33With Pat and Lori Steiner so.
- 21:37In conclusion, for this spot,
- 21:39what I can tell you now is that we start.
- 21:43Understanding not completely,
- 21:44we don't have a complete picture,
- 21:47but still with starting making
- 21:49progress in response to steroid,
- 21:51we think that we can draw a comparison
- 21:54between healthy control patients with TBI,
- 21:57an adult versus neonet.
- 22:00Hematopoietic stem and progenitor
- 22:02cells and probably P 57 Kip, too,
- 22:05is central to the response to
- 22:07steroids on this imagery population.
- 22:10The image you see FUE population that
- 22:13we still have to further characterize
- 22:16an we actively doing that an.
- 22:21Leading to self renewal of this population
- 22:24an increasing the red cell mass.
- 22:26Thinking a lot of people.
- 22:28Of course, the members of the lab.
- 22:31Julian, who's been my partner in
- 22:33crime for the past 10 years with
- 22:36who I probably would be lost.
- 22:38The people in the lab who do an
- 22:41amazing work and the past members.
- 22:44My MD, PhD students that all
- 22:45graduated now and I'll collaborators
- 22:47within the Feinstein, Jeff and and.
- 22:52And of course,
- 22:53our outside collaborators my as
- 22:55I call him my my scientific dad,
- 22:58more Han Bat, who has been following me.
- 23:04I would say listening to me and
- 23:06for the past 10 years also or 12
- 23:09years listening to my complaints
- 23:11and everything very,
- 23:12very patient with me and then
- 23:14this will help us.
- 23:16We've all done older single serving
- 23:18is sick that I didn't have time to
- 23:21present today and you and all our
- 23:24collaborators from the USA and in France.
- 23:27And of course our funding source
- 23:29from NIH hanovers foundations.
- 23:30If you have any questions feel
- 23:33free to send me an email.
- 23:35Thanks for your attention,
- 23:36will be happy to take any questions.
- 23:42Thank you, Leo, for truly excellent talk.