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Eliades P, Abraham BJ, Ji Z, Miller DM, Christensen CL, Kwiatkowski N, Kumar R, Njauw CN, Taylor M, Miao B, Zhang T, Wong KK, Gray NS, Young RA, Tsao H. High MITF Expression Is Associated with Super-Enhancers and Suppressed by CDK7 Inhibition in Melanoma. J Invest Dermatol 2018; 138:1582-1590. [PMID: 29408204 PMCID: PMC6019629 DOI: 10.1016/j.jid.2017.09.056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2017] [Revised: 09/15/2017] [Accepted: 09/20/2017] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive tumor that accounts for most skin cancer deaths. Among the physiological barriers against therapeutic success is a strong survival program driven by genes such as MITF that specify melanocyte identity, a phenomenon known in melanoma biology as lineage dependency. MITF overexpression is occasionally explained by gene amplification, but here we show that super-enhancers are also important determinants of MITF overexpression in some melanoma cell lines and tumors. Although compounds that directly inhibit MITF are unavailable, a covalent CDK7 inhibitor, THZ1, has recently been shown to potently suppress the growth of various cancers through the depletion of master transcription-regulating oncogenes and the disruption of their attendant super-enhancers. We also show that melanoma cells are highly sensitive to CDK7 inhibition both in vitro and in vivo and that THZ1 can dismantle the super-enhancer apparatus at MITF and SOX10 in some cell lines, thereby extinguishing their intracellular levels. Our results show a dimension to MITF regulation in melanoma cells and point to CDK7 inhibition as a potential strategy to deprive oncogenic transcription and suppress tumor growth in melanoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip Eliades
- Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Dermatology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA; Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, Brockton, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Brian J Abraham
- Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Zhenyu Ji
- Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - David M Miller
- Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Division of Hematology/Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Camilla L Christensen
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Nicholas Kwiatkowski
- Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Raj Kumar
- Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ching Ni Njauw
- Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Michael Taylor
- Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Benchun Miao
- Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Tinghu Zhang
- Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Kwok-Kin Wong
- Division of Hematology/Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Nathanael S Gray
- Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Richard A Young
- Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Hensin Tsao
- Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
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