CXCL12 chemokine dimer signaling modulates acute myelogenous leukemia cell migration through altered receptor internalization.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignancy of immature myeloid blast cells with stem-like and chemoresistant cells being retained in the bone marrow through CXCL12-CXCR4 signaling. Current CXCR4 inhibitors mobilize AML cells into the bloodstream where they become more chemosensitive have failed to improve patient survival, likely reflecting persistent receptor localization on target cells. Here we characterize the signaling properties of CXCL12-locked dimer (CXCL12-LD), a bioengineered variant of the dimeric CXCL12 structure. CXCL12-LD binding resulted in lower levels of G protein, β-arrestin, and intracellular calcium mobilization, consistent with the locked dimer being a partial agonist of CXCR4. Further, CXCL12-LD failed to induce chemotaxis in AML cells. Despite these partial agonist properties, CXCL12-LD increased CXCR4 internalization compared to wildtype and locked-monomer forms of CXCL12. Analysis of a previously published AML transcriptomic data showed CXCR4 positive AML cells co-express genes involved in chemoresistance and maintenance of a blast-like state. The CXCL12-LD partial agonist effectively mobilized stem cells into the bloodstream in mice suggesting a potential role for their use in targeting CXCR4. Together, our results suggest that enhanced internalization by CXCL12-LD partial agonist signaling can avoid pharmacodynamic tolerance and may identify new avenues to better target GPCRs.