Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Receptor 1 in Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma: Assessment of Expression and Role in Cell Migration

Classical Hodgkin lymphoma (CHL), a neoplasm of abnormal B lymphocytes (Hodgkin-Reed Sternberg cells), has been described to have a typical pattern of clinical presentation and dissemination often involving functionally contiguous lymph nodes. Despite the progress made in understanding CHL pathophysiology, the factors which regulate the spread of lymphoma cells in CHL are poorly understood. Sphingosine-1-Phosphate (S1P), a bioactive sphingolipid present at high concentrations in plasma and lymphatic fluid, is known to play a critical role in regulating lymphocyte trafficking mainly through S1PR1. In this study, we explore the role of the S1P-S1PR1 axis in Hodgkin lymphoma cell migration and the expression of S1PR1 in CHL cell lines and clinical cases. We found that S1PR1 is present in the KM-H2 and SUP-HD1 Hodgkin lymphoma cell lines at the mRNA and protein level. In addition, functionally, S1P potently stimulated migration of both cell lines. S1P-induced migration was inhibited by the S1PR1 antagonist, VPC44116 and the S1PR1 functional antagonist, FTY720-P, but was potentiated by the S1PR2 specific antagonist, JTE013. We also determined that S1PR1 induced migration in the KM-H2 and SUP-HD1 cells via the heterotrimeric G protein G(i) and the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway. Immunohistochemical assessment of tissue from CHL samples revealed that a subset of cases (7/57; 12%) show strong, membranous staining for S1PR1 in Hodgkin-Reed Sternberg cells. Altogether our data indicate that S1PR1 is a functional receptor on Hodgkin-Reed Sternberg cells which governs tumor cell migration and is expressed in a subset of CHL cases. Given the availability of S1PR1 antagonists, some of which are used clinically for modulation of the immune system, these results suggest that S1PR1 could be a future therapeutic target in the treatment of those cases of S1PR1-positive, refractory/recurrent CHL.