Fig. 4

SHQ1 knockout significantly decreases leukemia burden in the human T-ALL xenograft. a Schematic representation of human T-ALL xenograft. Two million JURKAT cells, expressing inducible CRISPR-Cas9 and sgRNA targeting GFP or SHQ1, were injected into irradiated NPG mice (1 gray). At 10 days post engraftment, doxycycline or normal saline was introduced into each allocated group for consecutive 7 days. b Kaplan–Meier survival curves of JURKAT xenografts in each group as indicated (n = 5 for each group). Survival of doxycycline-treated or untreated sgSHQ1 mice (purple and red lines) are compared with p value provided as shown (log-rank test). Between 28 and 35 days post engraftment, treated (blue line) or untreated (black line) sgGFP mice became moribund and 5 mice were taken out in each group and killed for assessment of leukemia burden. c Cas9 and SHQ1 were analyzed in human CD45⁺ bone marrow cells obtained from representative mice in each group. d Representative spleen and bone images of mice carrying JURKAT cells with or without SHQ1 expression. e Human CD45⁺ cells from spleen and bone marrow (as shown in d) were analyzed by flow cytometry. Data from five individual mice were plotted and shown on the right. f Representative immunohistological images of SHQ1, human CD45, and PCNA in spleen sections from indicated mice. Scale bar, 50 μm. Histological stain was quantified using ImageJ; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, unpaired t-test (e, f)