• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Biological and Clinical Significance of CD81 Expression by Clonal Plasma Cells in High-Risk Smoldering and Symptomatic Multiple Myeloma (MM) Patients,
  • Contributor: Paiva, Bruno; Gutierrez, Norma C.; Chen, Xi; Vidriales, María-Belén; Montalbán, María-Angeles; Rosiñol, Laura; Oriol, Albert; Martínez-López, Joaquín; Mateos, Maria Victoria; López-Corral, Lucía; Díaz-Rodríguez, Elena; Perez, Jose J.; Fernandez-Redondo, Elena; de Arriba, Felipe; Palomera, Luis; Bengoechea, Enrique; Terol, María José; de Paz, Raquel; Martín, Alejandro; Hernández, Jose; Orfao, Alberto; Lahuerta, Juan José; Blade, Joan; Pandiella, Atanasio;
  • imprint: American Society of Hematology, 2011
  • Published in: Blood
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1182/blood.v118.21.3936.3936
  • ISSN: 0006-4971; 1528-0020
  • Keywords: Cell Biology ; Hematology ; Immunology ; Biochemistry
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Abstract 3936</jats:p> <jats:p>The presence of CD19 in myelomatous plasma cells (MM-PC) correlates with adverse prognosis in MM. Although CD19 expression is up-regulated by CD81, this marker has been poorly investigated and its prognostic value in myeloma remains unknown.</jats:p> <jats:p>Herein, we assessed the frequency and the prognostic value of the immunophenotypic detection of CD81 surface expression in MM-PC of high-risk smoldering (SMM) and symptomatic MM patients at diagnosis and its role as a potential therapeutic target. The study included 230 elderly MM patients treated according to the Spanish GEM05&gt;65y trial, and a validation set based on 325 transplant candidates MM patients enrolled in the GEM05&lt;65y trial was used. In addition we analyzed a total of 56 high-risk SMM patients. The median follow-up was 32 and 22 months for the MM and SMM, respectively. Expression of CD81 on MM-PC was assessed by multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC). FISH was performed at baseline in immunomagnetic-enriched PCs from 211 of the 230 elderly MM patients, and in a subset of these patients (N=23) mRNA gene expression profiling (GEP) was also performed.</jats:p> <jats:p>MFC immunophenotyping showed the presence of CD81+ MM-PC in 20 of 56 (36%) SMM, and 90 of 230 (39%) MM patients. CD81+ SMM cases had a shorter TTP to symptomatic disease than CD81− patients (NR vs 37 months, P =.02). Similarly, CD81+symptomatic MM patients showed shorter PFS (3y: 29% vs 48%, P &lt;.001) and OS (3y: 64% vs 76%, P =.008) rates compared to CD81− cases. Multivariate analysis including other baseline variables showed that the best combination of independent predictive parameters for PFS were: CD81+ expression on MM-PC (HR=1.8; P =.004), high-risk cytogenetics (HR=1.8; P =.02) and percentage of MM-PC in S-phase (&gt;2%; HR=1.7; P =.02); in turn for OS, CD81+ expression (HR=2.2; P =.005), high-risk cytogenetics (HR=2.2; P =.006) and age (≥75 years; HR=1.8; P =.03) were selected. To validate the adverse impact of CD81+ expression, we explored whether this new marker would retain its prognostic value in a series of 325 transplant candidates, symptomatic MM patients. CD81+ cases (138 out of 325, 42%) showed shorter PFS (3y: 44% vs 62%, P &lt;.001) and OS (3y: 74% vs 89%, P =.004) rates as compared to CD81− cases.</jats:p> <jats:p>The prognostic influence of CD81 expression prompted us to investigate its potential role as a therapeutic target in MM cell lines. 5 out of the 13 cell lines analyzed were homogeneously positive for CD81 (RPMI-8226, RPMI-LR5, NCI-H929, OPM-2, JJN3) while the others exhibited no expression; these results were further validated by western blotting. We then tested the effect of two different anti-CD81 antibodies on cell proliferation on 2 CD81+ cell lines (RPMI-8226 and JJN3) as well as in 1 CD81− (MM1S) MM cell line. Interestingly, the two antibodies tested decreased cell proliferation (around 30%, P ≤.005) in the two CD81+ cell lines, whereas no differences were found for the CD81− MM1S cell line. To assess whether anti-CD81 antibodies facilitate immune effector cell function, we performed in vitro ADCC. However, no effect was noted in the CD81+ RPMI-8226 cell line, using either PBMCs or the macrophage cell line RAW264.7, and at different cell ratios. Similar results were also found upon using CDC assay in CD81+ RPMI-8226 and JJN3 cell lines.</jats:p> <jats:p>Finally, we explored in a subgroup of MM patients (n=23) in which information was available, the relationship between positivity for CD81 by MFC and its genomic expression. The expression level of CD81 mRNA was significantly decreased in CD81− MM cases (P &lt;.001) vs. both healthy adults and CD81+ patients (P &lt;.001), with no significant differences between these two latter subgroups. Moreover, we found a highly significant correlation between the expression of CD81 mRNA by GEP and the percentage of CD81+ MM-PC by MFC (r=.812; P &lt;.001). We further investigated by GEP, differences in other genes involved in the CD81 signaling pathway, and CD81+MM patients showed significantly higher levels of CD79A (P =.03) and SYK (P =.02) mRNA than CD81−cases.</jats:p> <jats:p>In summary, our findings show the existence of a phenotypic-genomic correlation of CD81 expression in patients with myeloma. Expression of CD81 in MM-PC is an independent prognostic factor for patients with symptomatic MM and a marker for risk of progression in SMM. Blockage of CD81 with anti-CD81 antibodies does not show significant anti-myeloma activity; therefore, the precise mechanism of CD81 activation of MM-PC deserves further investigations.</jats:p> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Disclosures:</jats:title> <jats:p>Paiva: Celgene: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria. Rosiñol:Janssen: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria. Mateos:Janssen: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria. Lahuerta:Janssen: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria. Blade:Janssen: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria. San Miguel:Janssen-Cilag: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria.</jats:p> </jats:sec>
  • Access State: Open Access