Expression of a unique helios isoform in human leukemia cells

The purpose of the present study was to characterize the human Helios gene products expressed in leukemia cells. A 3.5 kb human Helios cDNA clone was isolated from a human T-cell cDNA library derived from the human T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cell line JURKAT. This cDNA clone had a unique open reading frame (ORF) encoding a novel 304 amino acid (AA) peptide, which was designated as Helios 3. The sequence of the 289 AA C-terminal portion of Helios 3 downstream of V-16 is identical to the corresponding sequence found in Helios 1 and 2 and contains two zinc fingers. By contrast, the 15 AA N-terminal portion of Helios 3 is unique and does not contain the N-terminal zinc finger motifs that are conserved in Helios 1 and 2 as well as other previously identified members of the Ikaros family. Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA fragments of the human Helios gene locus showed that Helios 3 is encoded by the same genomic locus as Helios 1 and 2. The expression of Helios 3 mRNA was not restricted to T-lineage ALL cells or another immunophenotypically distinct subset of leukemias. Helios 3 mRNA was expressed in freshly obtained primary leukemic cells from six of 15 children with newly diagnosed ALL. Helios 3 exhibited a unique protein interaction profile via its N-terminal portion, which may have biological significance in pathogenesis of human leukemias.