1
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Chen X, Yang W, Roberts CWM, Zhang J. Developmental origins shape the paediatric cancer genome. Nat Rev Cancer 2024; 24:382-398. [PMID: 38698126 DOI: 10.1038/s41568-024-00684-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/05/2024]
Abstract
In the past two decades, technological advances have brought unprecedented insights into the paediatric cancer genome revealing characteristics distinct from those of adult cancer. Originating from developing tissues, paediatric cancers generally have low mutation burden and are driven by variants that disrupt the transcriptional activity, chromatin state, non-coding cis-regulatory regions and other biological functions. Within each tumour, there are multiple populations of cells with varying states, and the lineages of some can be tracked to their fetal origins. Genome-wide genetic screening has identified vulnerabilities associated with both the cell of origin and transcription deregulation in paediatric cancer, which have become a valuable resource for designing new therapeutic approaches including those for small molecules, immunotherapy and targeted protein degradation. In this Review, we present recent findings on these facets of paediatric cancer from a pan-cancer perspective and provide an outlook on future investigations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaolong Chen
- Department of Computational Biology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Wentao Yang
- Department of Computational Biology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Charles W M Roberts
- Comprehensive Cancer Center, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA
- Department of Oncology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Jinghui Zhang
- Department of Computational Biology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA.
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2
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Fanlo L, Gómez-González S, Rozalén C, Pérez-Núñez I, Sangrador I, Tomás-Daza L, Gautier EL, Usieto S, Rebollo E, Vila-Ubach M, Carcaboso AM, Javierre BM, Celià-Terrassa T, Lavarino C, Martí E, Le Dréau G. Neural crest-related NXPH1/α-NRXN signaling opposes neuroblastoma malignancy by inhibiting organotropic metastasis. Oncogene 2023:10.1038/s41388-023-02742-2. [PMID: 37301928 DOI: 10.1038/s41388-023-02742-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2022] [Revised: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer that can present as low- or high-risk tumors (LR-NBs and HR-NBs), the latter group showing poor prognosis due to metastasis and strong resistance to current therapy. Whether LR-NBs and HR-NBs differ in the way they exploit the transcriptional program underlying their neural crest, sympatho-adrenal origin remains unclear. Here, we identified the transcriptional signature distinguishing LR-NBs from HR-NBs, which consists mainly of genes that belong to the core sympatho-adrenal developmental program and are associated with favorable patient prognosis and with diminished disease progression. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments revealed that the top candidate gene of this signature, Neurexophilin-1 (NXPH1), has a dual impact on NB cell behavior in vivo: whereas NXPH1 and its receptor α-NRXN1 promote NB tumor growth by stimulating cell proliferation, they conversely inhibit organotropic colonization and metastasis. As suggested by RNA-seq analyses, these effects might result from the ability of NXPH1/α-NRXN signalling to restrain the conversion of NB cells from an adrenergic state to a mesenchymal one. Our findings thus uncover a transcriptional module of the sympatho-adrenal program that opposes neuroblastoma malignancy by impeding metastasis, and pinpoint NXPH1/α-NRXN signaling as a promising target to treat HR-NBs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucía Fanlo
- Department of Cells and Tissues, Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona, CSIC, Parc Científic de Barcelona, C/ Baldiri Reixac 10-15, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Soledad Gómez-González
- SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
| | - Catalina Rozalén
- Cancer Research Program, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Iván Pérez-Núñez
- Cancer Research Program, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Irene Sangrador
- Cancer Research Program, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Emmanuel L Gautier
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm, UMR_S 1166), Sorbonne Université, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France
| | - Susana Usieto
- Department of Cells and Tissues, Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona, CSIC, Parc Científic de Barcelona, C/ Baldiri Reixac 10-15, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Elena Rebollo
- Molecular Imaging Platform, Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona, CSIC, Parc Científic de Barcelona, C/ Baldiri Reixac 10-15, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Mònica Vila-Ubach
- SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
| | - Angel M Carcaboso
- SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
| | - Biola M Javierre
- Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, Badalona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Toni Celià-Terrassa
- Cancer Research Program, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Cinzia Lavarino
- SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
| | - Elisa Martí
- Department of Cells and Tissues, Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona, CSIC, Parc Científic de Barcelona, C/ Baldiri Reixac 10-15, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Gwenvael Le Dréau
- Department of Cells and Tissues, Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona, CSIC, Parc Científic de Barcelona, C/ Baldiri Reixac 10-15, 08028, Barcelona, Spain.
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, 17 rue Moreau, F-75012, Paris, France.
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Zeineldin M, Patel AG, Dyer MA. Neuroblastoma: When differentiation goes awry. Neuron 2022; 110:2916-2928. [PMID: 35985323 PMCID: PMC9509448 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.07.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2021] [Revised: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2022] [Indexed: 10/15/2022]
Abstract
Neuroblastoma is a leading cause of cancer-related death in children. Accumulated data suggest that differentiation arrest of the neural-crest-derived sympathoadrenal lineage contributes to neuroblastoma formation. The developmental arrest of these cell types explains many biological features of the disease, including its cellular heterogeneity, mutational spectrum, spontaneous regression, and response to drugs that induce tumor cell differentiation. In this review, we provide evidence that supports the notion that arrested neural-crest-derived progenitor cells give rise to neuroblastoma and discuss how this concept could be exploited for clinical management of the disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maged Zeineldin
- Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Anand G Patel
- Departments of Oncology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA
| | - Michael A Dyer
- Department of Developmental Neurobiology, MS-323, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
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4
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Hong B, Li Y, Yang R, Dai S, Zhan Y, Zhang WB, Dong R. Single-cell transcriptional profiling reveals heterogeneity and developmental trajectories of Ewing sarcoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 2022; 148:3267-3280. [PMID: 35713707 DOI: 10.1007/s00432-022-04073-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2021] [Accepted: 05/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE Ewing sarcoma (EwS) is an aggressive malignant neoplasm composed of small round cells. The heterogeneity and developmental trajectories of EwS are uncertain. METHODS Single-cell RNA sequencing was performed on 4 EwS tumor tissue samples, and 3 transcriptional atlases were generated. K-nearest neighbor algorithm was used to predict the origin of tumor cells at single-cell resolution. Monocle2 package was used to perform pseudotime trajectory analysis in tumor cells. Differentially expressed genes were compared against those in all other clusters via the FindMarkers function, and then they were subjected to GO analysis using clusterProfiler package. RESULTS Combined with the results of k-nearest neighbor algorithm and pseudotime trajectory analysis in tumor cells, we thought meningeal EwS originated from neural crest cells during epithelial to mesenchymal transition and simulated the process of neural crest cell lineage differentiation. But for perirenal EwS and spinal EwS, we hypothesized that after the neural crest cell lineage mutated into them, the tumor cells did not maintain the differentiation trajectory of neural crest cell lineage, and the development trajectory of tumor cells became chaotic. GO analysis results showed that interferon signaling pathway-related biological processes play an essential role in the tumorigenesis and tumor progression process of EwS, and among these biological processes genes, JAK1 gene up-regulated most significantly and highly expressed in all tumor cells. Ruxolitinib was used to explore the function of JAK1. Targeting JAK1 can promote apoptosis of EwS tumor cells, inhibit the migration and invasion of EwS tumor cells, and inhibit cell proliferation by inducing cell cycle S phase arrest. CONCLUSION EwS was derived from neural crest cell lineage with variable developmental timing of oncogenic conversion, and the JAK1 might be a candidate for therapeutic targets of EwS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bo Hong
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defect, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, 399 Wan Yuan Road, Shanghai, 201102, China
| | - Yi Li
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defect, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, 399 Wan Yuan Road, Shanghai, 201102, China
| | - Ran Yang
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defect, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, 399 Wan Yuan Road, Shanghai, 201102, China
| | - ShuYang Dai
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defect, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, 399 Wan Yuan Road, Shanghai, 201102, China
| | - Yong Zhan
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defect, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, 399 Wan Yuan Road, Shanghai, 201102, China
| | - Wen-Bo Zhang
- Department of Pediatric Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defect, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, 399 Wan Yuan Road, Shanghai, 201102, China.
| | - Rui Dong
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defect, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, 399 Wan Yuan Road, Shanghai, 201102, China.
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Ponzoni M, Bachetti T, Corrias MV, Brignole C, Pastorino F, Calarco E, Bensa V, Giusto E, Ceccherini I, Perri P. Recent advances in the developmental origin of neuroblastoma: an overview. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL & CLINICAL CANCER RESEARCH : CR 2022; 41:92. [PMID: 35277192 PMCID: PMC8915499 DOI: 10.1186/s13046-022-02281-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/06/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Neuroblastoma (NB) is a pediatric tumor that originates from neural crest-derived cells undergoing a defective differentiation due to genomic and epigenetic impairments. Therefore, NB may arise at any final site reached by migrating neural crest cells (NCCs) and their progeny, preferentially in the adrenal medulla or in the para-spinal ganglia. NB shows a remarkable genetic heterogeneity including several chromosome/gene alterations and deregulated expression of key oncogenes that drive tumor initiation and promote disease progression. NB substantially contributes to childhood cancer mortality, with a survival rate of only 40% for high-risk patients suffering chemo-resistant relapse. Hence, NB remains a challenge in pediatric oncology and the need of designing new therapies targeted to specific genetic/epigenetic alterations become imperative to improve the outcome of high-risk NB patients with refractory disease or chemo-resistant relapse. In this review, we give a broad overview of the latest advances that have unraveled the developmental origin of NB and its complex epigenetic landscape. Single-cell RNA sequencing with spatial transcriptomics and lineage tracing have identified the NCC progeny involved in normal development and in NB oncogenesis, revealing that adrenal NB cells transcriptionally resemble immature neuroblasts or their closest progenitors. The comparison of adrenal NB cells from patients classified into risk subgroups with normal sympatho-adrenal cells has highlighted that tumor phenotype severity correlates with neuroblast differentiation grade. Transcriptional profiling of NB tumors has identified two cell identities that represent divergent differentiation states, i.e. undifferentiated mesenchymal (MES) and committed adrenergic (ADRN), able to interconvert by epigenetic reprogramming and to confer intra-tumoral heterogeneity and high plasticity to NB. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing has disclosed the existence of two super-enhancers and their associated transcription factor networks underlying MES and ADRN identities and controlling NB gene expression programs. The discovery of NB-specific regulatory circuitries driving oncogenic transformation and maintaining the malignant state opens new perspectives on the design of innovative therapies targeted to the genetic and epigenetic determinants of NB. Remodeling the disrupted regulatory networks from a dysregulated expression, which blocks differentiation and enhances proliferation, toward a controlled expression that prompts the most differentiated state may represent a promising therapeutic strategy for NB.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mirco Ponzoni
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via G. Gaslini 5, 16147, Genoa, Italy
| | - Tiziana Bachetti
- U.O. Proteomica e Spettrometria di Massa, IRCSS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy
| | - Maria Valeria Corrias
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via G. Gaslini 5, 16147, Genoa, Italy
| | - Chiara Brignole
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via G. Gaslini 5, 16147, Genoa, Italy
| | - Fabio Pastorino
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via G. Gaslini 5, 16147, Genoa, Italy
| | - Enzo Calarco
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via G. Gaslini 5, 16147, Genoa, Italy
| | - Veronica Bensa
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via G. Gaslini 5, 16147, Genoa, Italy
| | - Elena Giusto
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via G. Gaslini 5, 16147, Genoa, Italy
| | - Isabella Ceccherini
- Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics of Rare Diseases, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Patrizia Perri
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via G. Gaslini 5, 16147, Genoa, Italy.
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Gautier M, Thirant C, Delattre O, Janoueix-Lerosey I. Plasticity in Neuroblastoma Cell Identity Defines a Noradrenergic-to-Mesenchymal Transition (NMT). Cancers (Basel) 2021; 13:2904. [PMID: 34200747 PMCID: PMC8230375 DOI: 10.3390/cancers13122904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2021] [Revised: 06/05/2021] [Accepted: 06/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system, is characterized by an important clinical heterogeneity, and high-risk tumors are associated with a poor overall survival. Neuroblastoma cells may present with diverse morphological and biochemical properties in vitro, and seminal observations suggested that interconversion between two phenotypes called N-type and S-type may occur. In 2017, two main studies provided novel insights into these subtypes through the characterization of the transcriptomic and epigenetic landscapes of a panel of neuroblastoma cell lines. In this review, we focus on the available data that define neuroblastoma cell identity and propose to use the term noradrenergic (NOR) and mesenchymal (MES) to refer to these identities. We also address the question of transdifferentiation between both states and suggest that the plasticity between the NOR identity and the MES identity defines a noradrenergic-to-mesenchymal transition, reminiscent of but different from the well-established epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margot Gautier
- Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Inserm U830, Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, 75005 Paris, France; (M.G.); (C.T.); (O.D.)
- SIREDO: Care, Innovation and Research for Children, Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer, Institut Curie, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Cécile Thirant
- Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Inserm U830, Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, 75005 Paris, France; (M.G.); (C.T.); (O.D.)
- SIREDO: Care, Innovation and Research for Children, Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer, Institut Curie, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Olivier Delattre
- Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Inserm U830, Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, 75005 Paris, France; (M.G.); (C.T.); (O.D.)
- SIREDO: Care, Innovation and Research for Children, Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer, Institut Curie, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Isabelle Janoueix-Lerosey
- Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Inserm U830, Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, 75005 Paris, France; (M.G.); (C.T.); (O.D.)
- SIREDO: Care, Innovation and Research for Children, Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer, Institut Curie, 75005 Paris, France
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Kameneva P, V Artemov A, Kastriti ME, Sundström E, Kharchenko PV, Adameyko I. Evolutionary switch in expression of key markers between mouse and human leads to mis-assignment of cell types in developing adrenal medulla. Cancer Cell 2021; 39:590-591. [PMID: 33930313 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2021.04.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Polina Kameneva
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Solna 17164, Sweden; Department of Neuroimmunology, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
| | - Artem V Artemov
- Department of Neuroimmunology, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
| | - Maria Eleni Kastriti
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Solna 17164, Sweden; Department of Neuroimmunology, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
| | - Erik Sundström
- Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 17164 Solna, Sweden
| | - Peter V Kharchenko
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
| | - Igor Adameyko
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Solna 17164, Sweden; Department of Neuroimmunology, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria.
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