1. Upregulation of the chromatin remodeler HELLS is mediated by YAP1 in Sonic Hedgehog Medulloblastoma
- Author
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Shoeb Lallani, Renee Read, Anna Kenney, Victor Maximov, Michael D. Taylor, M. Hope Robinson, and Hamza Farooq
- Subjects
Male ,lcsh:Medicine ,Cell Cycle Proteins ,HELLS ,Epigenesis, Genetic ,Mice ,0302 clinical medicine ,Neural Stem Cells ,Cerebellum ,Sonic hedgehog ,Child ,lcsh:Science ,Cells, Cultured ,Neurons ,0303 health sciences ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,Chromatin ,Up-Regulation ,3. Good health ,Histone ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,DNA methylation ,embryonic structures ,Female ,Signal Transduction ,Adult ,Transcriptional Activation ,animal structures ,Developmental neurogenesis ,Article ,Paediatric cancer ,03 medical and health sciences ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Hedgehog Proteins ,Epigenetics ,Cerebellar Neoplasms ,Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing ,030304 developmental biology ,Medulloblastoma ,lcsh:R ,DNA Helicases ,YAP-Signaling Proteins ,Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly ,medicine.disease ,Quality of Life ,biology.protein ,Cancer research ,lcsh:Q ,Smoothened ,Transcription Factors - Abstract
Medulloblastoma is a malignant pediatric tumor that arises from neural progenitors in the cerebellum. Despite a five-year survival rate of ~70%, nearly all patients incur adverse side effects from current treatment strategies that drastically impact quality of life. Roughly one-third of medulloblastoma are driven by aberrant activation of the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway. However, the scarcity of genetic mutations in medulloblastoma has led to investigation of other mechanisms contributing to cancer pathogenicity including epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Here, we show that Helicase, Lymphoid Specific (HELLS), a chromatin remodeler with epigenetic functions including DNA methylation and histone modification, is induced by Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) in SHH-dependent cerebellar progenitor cells and the developing murine cerebella. HELLS is also up-regulated in mouse and human SHH medulloblastoma. Others have shown that HELLS activity generally results in a repressive chromatin state. Our results demonstrate that increased expression of HELLS in our experimental systems is regulated by the oncogenic transcriptional regulator YAP1 downstream of Smoothened, the positive transducer of SHH signaling. Elucidation of HELLS as one of the downstream effectors of the SHH pathway may lead to novel targets for precision therapeutics with the promise of better outcomes for SHH medulloblastoma patients.
- Published
- 2019