Fucosylation inhibitor 6-alkynylfucose enhances the ATRA-induced differentiation effect on acute promyelocytic leukemia cells

For acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), differentiation therapy with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is well established. However, the narrow application and tolerance development of ATRA remain to be improved. In this study, we investigated the effects of combinations of glycosylation inhibitors with ATRA to achieve better efficiency than ATRA alone. We found that the combination of fucosylation inhibitor 6-alkynylfucose (6AF) and ATRA had an additional effect on cell differentiation, as revealed by expression changes in two differentiation markers, CD11b and CD11c, and significant morphological changes in NB4 APL and HL-60 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. In AAL lectin blot analyses, ATRA or 6AF alone could decrease fucosylation, while their combination decreased fucosylation more efficiently. To clarify the molecular mechanism for the 6AF effect on ATRA-induced differentiation, we performed microarray analyses using NB4 cells. In a pathway analysis using DAVID software, we found that the C-type lectin receptor (CLR) signaling pathway was enriched with high significance. In real-time PCR analyses using NB4 and HL-60 cells, FcεRIγ, CLEC6A, CLEC7A, CASP1, IL-1β, and EGR3, as components of the CLR pathway, as well as CD45 and AKT3 were upregulated by 6AF in ATRA-induced differentiation. Taken together, the present findings suggest that the CLR signaling pathway is involved in the 6AF effect on ATRA-induced differentiation.