SR-B1 deficiency suppresses progression in acute myeloid leukemia via ferroptosis and reverses resistance to venetoclax

Abstract

Increase of immature myeloid cells in the bone marrow drives the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The study aimed to clarify the biological function and regulatory mechanism of scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-B1) in AML, mainly its effect on ferroptosis and the influences on leukemogenesis and resistance to venetoclax. In this study, we found that the SR-B1 deficiency directly reduced the invasion and promoted death of malignant cells in AML. Strikingly, SR-B1 deficiency could up-regulated the expression of ferroptosis-related proteins to facilitate the occurrence of ferroptosis in vivo, and could also down-regulated the expression of apoptosis related protein B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2). And then, we confirmed SR-B1 inhibitor block lipid transport-1 (BLT-1) had a superior efficacy in AML cells and AML model mice. The study found that whether SR-B1 deficiency or BLT-1 treatment could cause iron deposition and the accumulation of lipid peroxides in vivo, thereby suppressing leukemogenesis through ferroptosis. Critically, we found that SR-B1 inhibitor BLT-1 could reverse drug-resistance of venetoclax to promote AML cells death via ferroptosis. Our finding identified that SR-B1 as a critical regulator of the proliferation in AML which could provide a promising therapeutic strategy against malignant myeloid leukemia cells and drug-resistance.