GSE134971
An In Vivo Genome-Wide CRISPR Screen Identifies the RNA-Binding Protein Staufen2 as a Key Regulator of Myeloid Leukemia
While Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) is generally well controlled with Imatinib and other kinase inhibitors, blast crisis CML (bcCML) continues to be resistant to current therapies and remains highly lethal. In this study, we identify the double stranded RNA binding protein Stau2 as a as key new dependency of bcCML. To define the impact of Staufen2 in myeloid leukemia, we developed a germline knockout with targeted loss of its RNA binding domains. Genetic deletion of Staufen2 led to a profound decrease in bcCML growth and propagation, and markedly improved overall survival in mouse models. Further, Staufen2  was also expressed and required for growth of primary bcCML as well as de novo AML patient samples, indicating a conserved utilization across human disease. Finally, an integrated computational analysis of eCLIP, RNA-Seq analysis and the functional genomic CRISPR screen identified Staufen2 as a regulator of a remarkable network of broad acting chromatin modifiers, resulting in changes in global histone methylation patterns. Overall design: The eCLIP study was designed to identify genes bound by Stau2 in myeloid leukemia.