Modeling Diamond Blackfan Anemia and p53 Activation in the Zebrafish

Abstract

Marrow dysplasias are pre-leukemic conditions that include ribosomopathies, a group of rare genetic diseases, or myelodysplasia preceded by clonal expansion in older adults with somatic mutations. To discover novel therapies for ribosomopathies, we performed two chemical suppressor screens using a ribosomal protein mutant zebrafish and human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from ribosomopathy patients. In the zebrafish screen, we found calmodulin inhibitors rescued the anemia in zebrafish and also rescued the erythroid defect of the mouse (in vivo) and human (in vitro) models of marrow failure. The screen in RPS19 mutant human iPSCs identified a compound, SMER28, which enhanced erythropoiesis in anemia models through an autophagy-dependent mechanism. The compounds identified in our chemicals screens have provided new insight into the etiology of marrow failure, and calmodulin inhibitors will soon be studied in a clinical trial with adult Diamond-Blackfan anemia patients. To study the abnormal clonal hematopoiesis associated with myelodysplasia, we have generated a new system using the zebrafish in which single stem cells and their progeny express unique combinations of fluorescent proteins, allowing them to be tracked over time by their specific color. Mosaic mutagenesis induced by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats /cas9 and/or gene overexpression in this system led to expansion of specifically colored blood, modeling the clonal hematopoiesis of human myelodysplasia. Our studies should provide new insight into the ribosomopathies and myelodysplasia. Disclosures Zon: Marauder Therapeutics: Equity Ownership, Other: Founder; Scholar Rock: Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Founder; Fate, Inc.: Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Founder.