Published online 19 February 2009
Haematologica, Vol 94, Issue 4, 576-580 doi:10.3324/haematol.2008.002352
Copyright © 2009 by Ferrata Storti Foundation
Myeloproliferative Disorders |
SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation as a potential bio-marker for myeloproliferative neoplasms associated with mutant JAK2 kinases
Joanne Elliott1,
Yvonne Suessmuth1,
Linda M. Scott2,
Krystyna Nahlik1,
Mary Frances McMullin3,
Stefan N. Constantinescu4,
Anthony R. Green2,
James A. Johnston1
1 Centre for Infection and Immunity, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queens University Belfast, Ireland
2 Dept. of Haematology, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
3 Belfast City Hospitals Trust and Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology (CCRCB), Belfast, N. Ireland
4 Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and The Christian de Duve Institute for Cellular Pathology, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Correspondence: James A. Johnston, Centre for Infection and Immunity, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, QUB, 2nd floor, Whitla Medical Building, 97 Lisburn Rd, Belfast, BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland. E-mail:jim.johnston{at}qub.ac.uk

ABSTRACT
JAK2 V617F, identified in the majority of patients with myeloproliferative
neoplasms, tyrosine phosphorylates SOCS3 and escapes its inhibition.
Here, we demonstrate that the JAK2 exon 12 mutants described
in a subset of V617F-negative MPN cases, also stabilize tyrosine
phosphorylated SOCS3. SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation was also
observed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and granulocytes
isolated from patients with JAK2 H538QK539L or JAK2 F537-K539delinsL
mutations. JAK kinase inhibitors, which effectively inhibited
the proliferation of cells expressing V617F or K539L, also caused
a dose-dependent reduction in both mutant JAK2 and SOCS3 tyrosine
phosphorylation. We propose, therefore, that SOCS3 tyrosine
phosphorylation may be a novel bio-marker of myeloproliferative
neoplasms resulting from a
JAK2 mutation and a potential reporter
of effective JAK2 inhibitor therapy currently in clinical development.
Key words: myeloproliferative neoplasms, JAK2, V617F, exon 12, SOCS3.

Introduction
Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) like polycythemia vera (PV),
essential thrombocythemia (ET) and primary myelofibrosis (PMF),
are clonal stem cell disorders attributed to a somatic mutation
in Janus kinase (JAK) 2, resulting in a valine-to-phenylalanine
substitution at position 617 (V617F).
1–5 Recently, other
mutations within JAK2 have been identified in patients with
V617F-negative PV.
6–8 Like JAK2 V617F, these exon 12 mutations
render JAK2 constitutively active and confer cytokine-independent
growth
in vitro.
6 Suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) 3
is a negative regulator of the erythropoietin receptor (EPOR)
and the receptor-associated JAK2 kinase. SOCS3 contains a SOCS-box
region at the C-terminus allowing it to form a multi-subunit
E3 ligase complex consisting of ElonginBC, Cullin5 and Rbx1.
9,10 In doing so,
SOCS3 can target associated proteins for ubiquitination
and degradation.
11–14 We have reported that, in contrast
to wild-type JAK2,
JAK2 V617F cannot be regulated by SOCS3.
Furthermore, turnover of SOCS3 is inhibited by
JAK2 V617F and
this correlates with marked tyrosine phosphorylation of SOCS3
protein.
15 The aim of this study was to establish if SOCS3 was
stabilized and phosphorylated by the other MPN-associated mutant
JAK2 kinases. Our observations suggest that SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation
may be a novel MPN bio-marker and a potential mechanism enabling
the mutant JAK2 kinases to overcome SOCS3 inhibition.

Design and Methods
Constructs, reagents and transfections
293T cells were transfected using calcium phosphate.
16 FLAG-tagged
SOCS3 and
JAK2 were expressed in pME18S and pRK respectively.
JAK2 mutations were created in pRK-JAK2 and pMXI-JAK2-IRES-GFP
using the QuikChange
® site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene,
CA, USA). BaF3 cells were retrovirally infected with supernatants
containing EPOR and JAK2, V617F or K539L expressed in pMXI-IRES-CD2
and pMXI-IRES-GFP, respectively.
17 Prof. Terry Lappin (CCRCB,
QUB) provided erythropoietin (EPO). AG490 and JAK inhibitor
1 were obtained from Calbiochem.
Immunoprecipitations and Western Blotting
293T cells were maintained and lysed as described.16 Lysates were immunoprecipitated with anti-JAK2 (Upstate Biotechnology, NY, USA) or anti-SOCS3 (clone 008) (Fusion Antibodies, Belfast). Western blots were probed with anti-phosphotyrosine (clone 4G10) (Upstate Biotechnology), anti-Flag (M2) or anti-
-tubulin (Sigma Aldrich, UK), anti-JAK2 or anti-SOCS3.
Patient samples
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and granulocytes were isolated1,15 and analyzed as described15 from healthy donors or MPN patients who gave informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committees, Northern Ireland and Addenbrookes National Health Service Trust Research Ethics Committee.
Proliferation assays
BaF3-EPOR cell populations were seeded in triplicate at 3 x 104 per mL in the presence or absence of 5 u/mL EPO. Viable cells were counted in quadruplicate by try-pan exclusion at 24h, 48h and 72h. Statistical analysis was carried out using a Students t test.

Results and Discussion
JAK2 V617F is resistant to the inhibitory effects of SOCS3.
15 In the presence of EPOR, wild-type JAK2 induced a loss of SOCS3
protein while JAK2 V617F tyrosine phosphorylated and stabilized
both endogenous and exogenous SOCS3 (
Figure 1A). Recently, a
number of mutations within JAK2 (including JAK2 K539L, JAK2
N542-E543del, JAK2 H538QK539L and JAK2 F537-K539delinsL)
6–8 have been identified in a subset of V617F-negative MPN patients.
We wished to determine whether these mutations also induced
SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation. Co-expression studies of SOCS3
and wild-type or mutant JAK2 were performed in 293T cells, in
the presence of the EPOR.
18 Compared to wild-type JAK2, expression
of K539L or N542-E543del stabilized SOCS3 protein, as did JAK2
V617F (
Figure 1B). Additionally, endogenous and exogenous SOCS3
was tyrosine phosphorylated in the presence of these MPN-associated
mutant JAK2 kinases (
Figure 1A and 1B). Similar results were
obtained when JAK2 H538QK539L and JAK2 F537-K539delinsL were
tested (
Figure 1C). We next investigated if SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation
was observed in JAK2 V617F-negative MPN patients. PBMCs and
granulocytes were isolated from a healthy individual and 2 patients,
with either H538QK539L or F537-K539delinsL mutations. Protein
concentration was estimated and equalized for each sample. Compared
with controls, both MPN patients showed greater levels of tyrosine
phosphorylated SOCS3 in both PBMCs and granulocytes, while SOCS3
protein levels were similar (
Figure 1D). We next investigated
whether SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation is specific to the MPN-associated
V617F or exon 12 mutations in JAK2. To investigate this we determined
whether other activating mutations in JAK2 resulted in stabilization
of tyrosine phosphorylated SOCS3. To do this we created the
JAK2 T875N mutation identified in an acute megakaryoblastic
leukemia cell line and expressed this mutation in the presence
of SOCS3. As before, V617F caused stabilization of tyrosine
phosphorylated SOCS3, while both wild-type JAK2 and JAK2 T875N
failed to do so in the absence (
Figure 1E, left hand panels)
or presence (
Figure 1E, right hand panels) of EPO stimulation.
These data demonstrated that SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation
may be a useful bio-marker specific to the MPN-associated V167F
or exon 12 mutations.
We next established if SOCS3 could regulate the phosphorylation
of the exon 12 JAK2 mutants. Following EPO stimulation, SOCS3
potently inhibited wild-type JAK2 phosphorylation, with a concomitant
reduction in SOCS3 protein levels, while SOCS3 was unable to
significantly down-modulate mutant JAK2 phosphorylation and
in all cases SOCS3 protein was stabilized (
Figure 2). This may
indicate that tyrosine phosphorylation of SOCS3 abrogated its
ability to negatively regulate JAK2 K539L, H538QK539L, or F537-K539delinsL.
To investigate if SOCS3 could be a novel bio-marker of MPN,
we analyzed the effect of JAK inhibitors on SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation.
Firstly, we created stable BaF3 cells lines expressing EPOR
along with wild-type JAK2, V617F or K539L. Trypan exclusion
counts confirmed that although BaF3 cells expressing wild-type
JAK2 were unable to proliferate in the absence of EPO, cells
expressing V617F or K539L continued to proliferate (
Figure 3A).
Next we investigated the effects of AG490 or JAK inhibitor 1
on the proliferation of BaF3 cells expressing V617F and K539L
in the absence of EPO stimulation. Both AG490 and JAK inhibitor
1 severely impaired the proliferation of BaF3 cells expressing
V617F or K539L in a dose-dependent manner (
Figure 3B). Since
AG490 gave the most pronounced growth inhibitory effects, we
investigated the impact of AG490 on SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation
(
Figure 3C). 293T cells expressing EPOR and SOCS3 along with
V617F (
Figure 3C, left panels) or K539L (
Figure 3C, right panels)
were treated with AG490 for 24h. AG490 caused a dose-dependent
reduction in SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation correlating with
a reduction in mutant JAK2 phosphorylation. These findings suggest
that SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation mirrors JAK2 activity and
may highlight SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation as a marker of
MPN and a potential therapeutic read-out of JAK2 inhibitor therapy
currently in clinical trials.
SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation may also hint at a mechanism
by which these mutant JAK2 kinases cause transformation. The
inhibitory function of SOCS3 is attributed to the C-terminal
SOCS-box which enables assembly of a multi-subunit E3 ligase
complex.
9,10 We have previously reported that SOCS3 is tyrosine
phosphorylated in response to many cytokines and that tyrosine
phosphorylation of SOCS3
in vitro prevents the SOCS3-ElonginC
binding.
19–21 Constitutive SOCS3 tyrosine phosphorylation
may prevent the SOCS3-ElonginC interaction thereby inhibiting
SOCS3 E3 ligase activity. In other words, the MPN-associated
mutant JAK2 kinases may constitutively phosphorylate SOCS3 and
could indicate a mechanism by which the MPN-associated JAK2
mutations may induce transformation. Regulation of SOCS proteins
by phosphorylation is not restricted to SOCS3, since v-ABL-mediated
phosphorylation of SOCS1 disrupts the interaction with the ElonginBC
complex, thus stabilizing SOCS1 and blocking JAK degradation.
22,23 If the MPN-associated mutants bypass the suppressive function
of SOCS3 by inhibiting E3 ligase recruitment through tyrosine
phosphorylation, SOCS3 may not only be a suitable bio-marker
of MPN but may be a potential therapeutic target of MPN arising
from these JAK2 mutations.

Footnotes
Authorship and Disclosures
JE designed, performed research and wrote the paper. YS, LMS and KN performed research, ARG and MFM provided patient samples and advised on research. SC provided vital reagents and contributed to the manuscript preparation. JAJ advised on research and contributed to manuscript preparation.
The authors reported no potential conflicts of interest.
Funding: JE, YS, KN and JAJ are supported by the Health Research Board Ireland, the Leukaemia Research Fund, Marie Curie and the Research and Development Office at HPSS.
Received for publication October 23, 2008.
Revision received November 17, 2008.
Accepted for publication November 20, 2008.

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