Negative regulation of p53 by nucleophosmin antagonizes stress-induced apoptosis in human normal and malignant hematopoietic cells.

Abstract Nucleophosmin (NPM) is a multifunctional protein frequently overexpressed in actively proliferating cells including tumor and stem cells. Here we show that NPM acts as a cellular p53 negative regulator to protect normal and malignant hematopoietic cells from stress-induced apoptosis. Overexpression of NPM suppresses stress-induced apoptosis in the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)-dependent myeloid cell line MO7e and the lymphoblast HSC536 cells derived from a Fanconi anemia (FA) patient. In addition, suppression of NPM expression by small interfering RNA targeting NPM in normal lymphoblasts and FA-associated acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) cells increases DNA damage-induced apoptosis. However, overexpression of the mutant NPMΔC, which lacks the p53-interacting domain, fails to confer cellular resistance to stress-induced apoptosis, suggesting that NPM protects cells from apoptotic cell death through a mechanism involving p53. Indeed, using the genetically matched p53 wild-type (WT) and null mouse bone marrow (BM) cells, we demonstrate that forced expression of NPM protects against ionizing irradiation (IR)-induced apoptosis of WT but not p53-null BM cells. Moreover, NPM inhibits IR-induced p53 transactivation, and interacts with p53 in hematopoietic cells. Thus, these results indicate an important role for NPM in regulation of p53-dependent apoptotic response and implicate a potential effect in cancer therapy.