Immune stress suppresses innate immune signaling in preleukemic precursor B-cells to provoke leukemia in predisposed mice

The initial steps of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) development usually pass unnoticed in children. Several preclinical studies have shown that exposure to immune stressors triggers the transformation of preleukemic B cells to full-blown B-ALL, but how this takes place is still a longstanding and unsolved challenge. Here we show that dysregulation of innate immunity plays a driving role in the clonal evolution of pre-malignant Pax5+/− B-cell precursors toward leukemia. Transcriptional profiling reveals that Myd88 is downregulated in immune-stressed pre-malignant B-cell precursors and in leukemic cells. Genetic reduction of Myd88 expression leads to a significant increase in leukemia incidence in Pax5+/−Myd88+/− mice through an inflammation-dependent mechanism. Early induction of Myd88-independent Toll-like receptor 3 signaling results in a significant delay of leukemia development in Pax5+/− mice. Altogether, these findings identify a role for innate immunity dysregulation in leukemia, with important implications for understanding and therapeutic targeting of the preleukemic state in children.