Medulloblastoma cells resemble neuronal progenitors in their differentiation

Duancheng Guo; Yanghui Qu; Yijun Yang; Zeng-Jie Yang

doi:10.1080/23723556.2020.1810514

Medulloblastoma cells resemble neuronal progenitors in their differentiation

Mol Cell Oncol. 2020 Sep 5;7(6):1810514. doi: 10.1080/23723556.2020.1810514.

Authors

Duancheng Guo^{1

2}, Yanghui Qu², Yijun Yang¹, Zeng-Jie Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ Cancer Biology Program, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple University Health System, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
² College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.

Abstract

Medulloblastoma (MB) often originate from cerebellar granule neuron precursors (GNPs). We recently found that medulloblastoma cells undergo differentiation as GNPs. Differentiated MB cells have permanently lost their proliferative capacity and tumorigenicity. The differentiation of MB cells is driven by the transcription factor NeuroD1 (Neurogenic differentiation 1), and NeuroD1 expression in MB cells is repressed by EZH2-mediated H3K27me3.

Keywords: EZH2; Medulloblastoma; NeuroD1; differentiation; hedgehog pathway.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the American Brain Tumor Association [Discovery Award]; American Cancer Society [RSG1605301NEC]; PA Cure Health Research Fund [CURE 4100068716].