ARF suppression by MYC but not MYCN confers increased malignancy of aggressive pediatric brain tumors.

Mainwaring OJ, Weishaupt H, Zhao M, Rosén G, Borgenvik A, Breinschmid L, Verbaan AD, Richardson S, Thompson D, Clifford SC, Hill RM, Annusver K, Sundström A, Holmberg KO, Kasper M, Hutter S, Swartling FJ

Nat Commun 14 (1) 1221 [2023-03-03; online 2023-03-03]

Medulloblastoma, the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor, often harbors MYC amplifications. Compared to high-grade gliomas, MYC-amplified medulloblastomas often show increased photoreceptor activity and arise in the presence of a functional ARF/p53 suppressor pathway. Here, we generate an immunocompetent transgenic mouse model with regulatable MYC that develop clonal tumors that molecularly resemble photoreceptor-positive Group 3 medulloblastoma. Compared to MYCN-expressing brain tumors driven from the same promoter, pronounced ARF silencing is present in our MYC-expressing model and in human medulloblastoma. While partial Arf suppression causes increased malignancy in MYCN-expressing tumors, complete Arf depletion promotes photoreceptor-negative high-grade glioma formation. Computational models and clinical data further identify drugs targeting MYC-driven tumors with a suppressed but functional ARF pathway. We show that the HSP90 inhibitor, Onalespib, significantly targets MYC-driven but not MYCN-driven tumors in an ARF-dependent manner. The treatment increases cell death in synergy with cisplatin and demonstrates potential for targeting MYC-driven medulloblastoma.

Bioinformatics Support for Computational Resources [Service]

NGI Short read [Service]

NGI Uppsala (Uppsala Genome Center) [Service]

National Genomics Infrastructure [Service]

PubMed 36869047

DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-36847-9

Crossref 10.1038/s41467-023-36847-9

pmc: PMC9984535
pii: 10.1038/s41467-023-36847-9


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