Oncofusion

start / graph / ana-unstated-system-panobinostat-h2bub-resolved

Analysisestablished confidence 5 of 5: Multiple independent lines of evidence; treated as settled in the field.Q18b-unstated-systems

The panobinostat H2Bub result is SEM and KOPN8 against a REH comparator: three human lines, two KMT2A partners, one non-KMT2A control

also called GSE78234 provenance · LBH589 MLL-rearranged lines · panobinostat cell lines

An entry on the drug panobinostat notes that the paper does not name which KMT2A fusions or cell lines it used. The deposited data names them: SEM and KOPN8, two human infant-leukaemia lines with different KMT2A partners, compared against REH, a leukaemia line with no KMT2A rearrangement at all.

The same thing, for a scientist

`mechanism-panobinostat-depletes-h2bub-mll-r-all` carries the caveat *"the specific KMT2A fusions and lines are not named in the abstract"* [E1]. GEO series **GSE78234** answers it and adds the control arm the caveat could not know about. Thirty-two *Homo sapiens* samples, source names given per sample: **SEM cell line with the t(4;11)**, **KOPN8 cell line with the t(11;19)** and **REH cell line with the t(12;21)**, each under `treatment: Control` or `treatment: LBH589` across four replicates, with panobinostat at 5 nM for 24 h in the shared protocol [E2]. So the study is human throughout; it contains the index fusion (SEM, KMT2A::AFF1); it contains a second KMT2A partner (KOPN8, KMT2A::MLLT1); and critically it contains a **non-KMT2A leukaemia comparator** (REH, ETV6::RUNX1), which is exactly what the MED23 deposition lacks [E3]. The 5 nM, 24 h exposure is the single most consequential number recovered here, because the graph's entry discusses H2Bub depletion without a concentration.

Go deeper
What the deposition adds that the abstract could not
Sample source stringFusionnArms
SEM cell line with the t(4;11)KMT2A::AFF1~8Control / LBH589, 4 replicates
KOPN8 cell line with the t(11;19)KMT2A::MLLT1~8Control / LBH589, 4 replicates
REH cell line with the t(12;21)ETV6::RUNX1 (non-KMT2A)~8Control / LBH589, 4 replicates

Sixteen control and sixteen LBH589 samples in total. The shared treatment protocol reads "Panobinostat (LBH589, 5nM) or control, for 24h" and the growth protocol "leukemia cells were cultured in RPMI-1640" 2.

Three things the graph gains. A named index-fusion arm. A second-partner arm that lets partner-specific effects be separated from KMT2A-generic ones. And a non-KMT2A comparator, which converts a description into a selectivity claim - or refutes one.

The dose is the part that should change an entry

5 nM for 24 hours is a low, short exposure for an HDAC inhibitor and sits well below the concentrations at which panobinostat's pleiotropic effects are usually reported. An entry that says panobinostat depletes H2Bub in MLL-rearranged ALL without that number invites the reader to imagine a robust pharmacological effect; the deposition says the transcriptional profiling was done under a deliberately restrained condition. That is a strength for specificity and a weakness for magnitude, and the entry should say which.

Facts and figures
scriptnone - GEO accession-display text endpoint
statusrun
result summary32 of 32 deposited samples are human: SEM t(4;11), KOPN8 t(11;19) and REH t(12;21), 16 control and 16 LBH589, panobinostat 5 nM for 24 h. The index fusion is present and a non-KMT2A comparator is present. The in vivo arm is not deposited.
counts
samples_mouse0.000samples_mouse: 0non_kmt2a_comparator_lines1.000non_kmt2a_comparator_lines: 1kmt2a_partners_represented2.000kmt2a_partners_represented: 2cell_lines3.000cell_lines: 3panobinostat_nM5.000panobinostat_nM: 5exposure_hours24.0exposure_hours: 24samples_total32.0samples_total: 32samples_human32.0samples_human: 32
inputs
[
  "PMID 28690313",
  "GSE78234"
]
counts — the numbers behind the chart
{
  "samples_total": 32,
  "samples_human": 32,
  "samples_mouse": 0,
  "cell_lines": 3,
  "kmt2a_partners_represented": 2,
  "non_kmt2a_comparator_lines": 1,
  "panobinostat_nM": 5,
  "exposure_hours": 24
}
entries affected
[
  "mechanism-panobinostat-depletes-h2bub-mll-r-all"
]
import axes
[
  "lineage: the KOPN8 and REH arms are B-lymphoid like the index disease; no import on fusion or species for the SEM arm"
]
How this could bite us back
  • Panobinostat is a pan-HDAC inhibitor with dose-limiting thrombocytopenia and cardiac toxicity, so an H2Bub-directed rationale built on a 5 nM in vitro exposure has to survive the gap to a tolerated human exposure before it means anything clinically.
  • If H2Bub depletion is equally strong in the REH comparator, the mechanism is not KMT2A-selective and any therapeutic-window argument from this study collapses; the deposition contains the arm that would show this and the graph has never read it.
  • The undeposited in vivo arm is where the paper's clinical claim lives, so an entry that now cites well-resolved in vitro provenance can create a false impression of having verified the result that actually matters.
Still open
  1. Does H2Bub depletion under 5 nM panobinostat differ between the SEM and KOPN8 arms? A partner-specific difference would be the first in this graph measured at equal dose in the same experiment.
  2. The paper's in vivo xenograft result is undeposited. Which fusion did the xenograft carry, and was it the same SEM and KOPN8 pair or primary infant material?
Every source behind this entry (3)
  1. E1established confidence 5 of 5: Multiple independent lines of evidence; treated as settled in the field.paper

    The panobinostat paper reports in vivo anti-leukaemic activity of LBH589 against MLL-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and its abstract does not name the specific KMT2A fusions or cell lines used.

    The HDAC inhibitor panobinostat (LBH589) exerts in vivo anti-leukaemic activity against MLL-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and involves the RNF20/RNF40/WAC-H2B ubiquitination axis. · Garrido Castro P, van Roon EHJ, Pinhanços SS, Trentin L, Schneider P, Kerstjens M, Te Kronnie G, Heidenreich O, Pieters R, Stam RW · Leukemia 2018
    What this evidence cannot show

    Identifiers taken from the NCBI esummary record fetched on 2026-09-19. The full text could not be read: this article has no PMCID in either the PubMed esummary or the Europe PMC core record, so the deposition is the only per-sample source available and this entry asserts nothing about the paper's Methods.

    Evidence that argues against this (1)
    • HDAC inhibitors have long been shown to kill t(4;11) and other ALL lines through broadly apoptotic mechanisms that are not specific to H2B ubiquitination, so attributing the drug's effect to an H2Bub axis requires more than a transcriptional profile. Romanski A et al. 2004
  2. E2established confidence 5 of 5: Multiple independent lines of evidence; treated as settled in the field.dataset

    GEO series GSE78234 contains 32 Homo sapiens samples whose per-sample source names identify three lines - SEM with the t(4;11), KOPN8 with the t(11;19) and REH with the t(12;21) - each with 16 control and 16 LBH589 samples in four replicates, under a shared protocol of panobinostat 5 nM for 24 h.

    What this evidence cannot show

    Read on 2026-09-19 from the GEO accession-display text endpoint. Submitter-entered. The series records the fusion only as a karyotype in a free-text source-name string, not as a structured genotype field, so KMT2A::AFF1 and KMT2A::MLLT1 are this entry's reading of t(4;11) and t(11;19) in these named lines rather than a submitter assertion. The in vivo arm named in the paper's title is not represented in the deposition.

    Evidence that argues against this (1)
    • The deposition covers only the transcriptional arm; the paper's headline is an in vivo xenograft result that leaves no GEO trace, so a reader who takes the deposition as the study's scope will under-read it in exactly the direction this beat warns about elsewhere. Rogic S et al. 2026
  3. E3strong confidence 4 of 5: Replicated in peer-reviewed work by more than one group.dataset

    REH carries ETV6::RUNX1 from t(12;21) and no KMT2A rearrangement, so its presence in GSE78234 supplies a non-KMT2A leukaemia comparator arm for the panobinostat response.

    What this evidence cannot show

    The t(12;21) identification is the submitter's own source-name string; its interpretation as ETV6::RUNX1 is standard but is this entry's inference, not a field in the record. A single comparator line cannot establish selectivity on its own - it establishes that a comparison was possible, which is more than most depositions in this beat offer.

    Evidence that argues against this (1)
    • One non-KMT2A line is a weak comparator: ETV6::RUNX1 disease differs from KMT2A-rearranged disease in far more than the fusion, so a differential response between REH and SEM confounds fusion with the entire biological background. Dietsche L et al. 2024
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