Network-based systems pharmacology reveals heterogeneity in LCK and BCL2 signaling and therapeutic sensitivity of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive hematological malignancy and new therapeutics are much needed. Profiling patient leukemia drug sensitivities ex vivo, we discovered that 44.4% of childhood and 16.7% of adult T-ALL cases exquisitely respond to dasatinib. Applying network-based systems pharmacology analyses to examine signal circuitry, we identified preTCR–LCK activation as the driver of dasatinib sensitivity and T-ALL-specific LCK dependency was confirmed in genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screens. Dasatinib-sensitive T-ALL exhibited high BCL-XL activity, low BCL2 activity and venetoclax resistance. Discordant sensitivity of T-ALL to dasatinib and venetoclax is strongly correlated with T-cell differentiation, particularly with the dynamic shift in LCK versus BCL2 activation. Finally, single-cell analysis identified leukemia heterogeneity in LCK and BCL2 signaling and T-cell maturation stage, consistent with dasatinib response. In conclusion, our results indicate that developmental arrest in T-ALL drives differential activation of preTCR–LCK and BCL2 signaling in this leukemia, providing unique opportunities for targeted therapy. Yang and colleagues perform a network system–pharmacology approach and clinical data integration, and identify LCK and BCL2 signaling as the molecular determinants of dasatinib response in pediatric and adult patients with T-ALL.