Abstract B25: Progressive epigenetic programming during B cell maturation yields a continuum of clonal disease phenotypes with distinct etiologies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Knowledge of the cell-of-origin is essential for the full understanding of the causes of a malignant disease and for the rational design of targeted therapies. The B cell compartment is composed of a highly complex mixture of subtypes, each with distinct phenotypes and roles within the immune system. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), heterogeneity in the biology and clinical course of the disease is thought to be linked to divergent cellular origins. We and others have previously shown that the epigenome of CLL, as measured by the global pattering of DNA methylation, is highly clonal and remarkably stable over time and thus represents a powerful approach to trace founder subtype populations. Here we combine epigenomic and transcriptomic analysis using next-generation sequencing approaches to compare CLL cells to highly purified and specific B cell subpopulations at various stages of maturation. We find that B cell maturation involves substantial unidirectional epigenetic programming that occurs as a continuum throughout the transition between naïve to fully-mature memory B cell subpopulations. Combining 258 CLL cases using Illumina 450K analysis reveals that all CLLs arise from a discrete window within the spectrum of B cell maturation that is more similar to mature B cells, with the majority of cases clustering at two distinct points correlating with unmutated IGHV versus highly mutated ( Citation Format: Christopher C. Oakes, Marc Seifert, Assenov Yassen, Lei Gu, Martina Przekopowitz, Amy Ruppert, Andrius Serva, Sandra Koser, David Brocks, Daniel Lipka, Olga Bogatyrova, Daniel Mertens, Marc Zapatka, Peter Lichter, Hartmut Doehner, Ralf Kueppers, Thorsten Zenz, Stephan Stilgenbauer, John Byrd, Christoph Plass. Progressive epigenetic programming during B cell maturation yields a continuum of clonal disease phenotypes with distinct etiologies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Hematologic Malignancies: Translating Discoveries to Novel Therapies; Sep 20-23, 2014; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2015;21(17 Suppl):Abstract nr B25.