USP1 promotes the aerobic glycolysis and progression of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia via PLK1/LDHA axis

The effect of aerobic glycolysis remains elusive in pediatric acute T lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). Increasing evidence has revealed that dysregulation of deubiquitination is involved in glycolysis, by targeting glycolytic rate-limiting enzymes. Here, we demonstrated that upregulated deubiquitinase USP1 expression correlated with poor prognosis in pediatric primary T-ALL samples. USP1 depletion abolished cellular proliferation and attenuated glycolytic metabolism. In vivo experiments showed that USP1 suppression decreased leukemia progression in nude mice. Inhibition of USP1 caused a decrease of both mRNA and protein levels in LDHA, a critical glycolytic enzyme. Moreover, USP1 interacted with and deubiquitinated PLK1, a critical regulator of glycolysis. Overexpression of USP1 with upregulated PLK1 was observed in most T-ALL patient samples. In addition, PLK1 inhibition reduced LDHA expression and abrogated the USP1-mediated increase of cell proliferation and lactate level. Ectopic expression of LDHA can rescue the suppressive effect of USP1 silencing on cell growth and lactate production. Pharmacological inhibition of USP1 by ML323 exhibited cell cytotoxicity in human T-ALL cells. Taken together, our results demonstrated that USP1 may be a promising therapeutic target in pediatric T-ALL.