Abstract 1023: Activation of proto-oncogenes by enhancer-hijacking in high-risk neuroblastoma
Authors: Dreidax Daniel , Gartlgruber Moritz , Steinhauser Sebastian , Savelyeva Larisa , Schwessinger Ron , Toprak Umut , Ha Nati , Juraeva Dilafruz , Peifer Martin , Fischer Matthias , Gröschel Stefan , Henrich Kai-Oliver , Park Young-Gyu , Brors Benedikt , Schlesner Matthias , Herrmann Carl , Westermann Frank 
Published: July 2017

Background: Neuroblastoma (NB), a neural crest-derived tumor of the sympathetic nervous system, is the most common extracranial solid tumor in children. We have previously shown that genomic rearrangements activate proto-oncogenic telomerase by juxtaposing active enhancer elements to the TERT gene in a large fraction of high-risk NBs. In the present study, we applied a global approach integrating whole genome sequencing (WGS), Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data of NB cells and tumors to identify further key oncogenes activated by enhancer-hijacking in NB.

Methods: WGS was applied to search for structural rearrangements in 120 NB tumors and five NB cell lines. Corresponding RNA-seq data were used to discover mono-allelic and/or outlier expression of candidate genes potentially involved in enhancer hijacking events. ChIP-seq of 34 NB tumors and 17 NB cell lines was applied to identify active enhancer elements in NB. Circular chromatin conformation capture sequencing (4C-seq) was used to confirm physical promoter-enhancer interactions in NB cell lines.

Results: WGS analyses revealed that chromosomal rearrangements are common events in NB tumors and cell lines and frequently affect regions harboring proto-oncogenes and lineage specific enhancers. ChIP-seq analyses of the chromatin mark histone 3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac), surrogate for enhancer activity, confirmed that these rearrangements recurrently juxtapose active enhancer elements to oncogenes including MYCN and MYC in NB. Intriguingly, quantification of H3K27ac ChIP-seq profiles uncovered that the enhancer elements translocated to MYC were among the most active ones within the respective epigenomes. 4C-seq analyses proofed physical interactions between translocated enhancer elements and promoters of the respective oncogenes, which is in line with their elevated expression in rearranged cases.

Conclusions: Our study reveals that structural rearrangements in high-risk neuroblastoma frequently juxtapose strong enhancers to key oncogenes, including MYCN and MYC, leading to physical promoter-enhancer interactions which likely drive overexpression of the oncogenes observed in rearranged cases. The common mechanism of oncogene activation by enhancer-hijacking may open a therapeutic window for epigenetic drugs including BET or CDK7 inhibitors in high-risk NBs.

Citation Format: Daniel Dreidax, Moritz Gartlgruber, Sebastian Steinhauser, Larisa Savelyeva, Ron Schwessinger, Umut Toprak, Nati Ha, Dilafruz Juraeva, Martin Peifer, Matthias Fischer, Stefan Gröschel, Kai-Oliver Henrich, Young-Gyu Park, Benedikt Brors, Matthias Schlesner, Carl Herrmann, Frank Westermann. Activation of proto-oncogenes by enhancer-hijacking in high-risk neuroblastoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1023. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-1023