The transcriptional landscape of Shh medulloblastoma

1 Dec 2021Nature Communications

DOI : 10.1038/s41467-021-21883-0

Authors

Patryk Skowron, Hamza Farooq, Florence M. G. Cavalli, A. Sorana Morrissy, Michelle Ly, Liam D. Hendrikse, Evan Y. Wang, Haig Djambazian, Helen Zhu, Karen L. Mungall, Quang M. Trinh, Tina Zheng, Shizhong Dai, Ana S. Guerreiro Stucklin, Maria C. Vladoiu, Vernon Fong, Borja L. Holgado, Carolina Nor, Xiaochong Wu, Diala Abd-Rabbo, Pierre Bérubé, Yu Chang Wang, Betty Luu, Raul A. Suarez, Avesta Rastan, Aaron H. Gillmor, John J. Y. Lee, Xiao Yun Zhang, Craig Daniels, Peter Dirks, David Malkin, Eric Bouffet, Uri Tabori, James Loukides, François P. Doz, Franck Bourdeaut, Olivier O. Delattre, Julien Masliah-Planchon, Olivier Ayrault, Seung-Ki Kim, David Meyronet, Wieslawa A. Grajkowska, Carlos G. Carlotti, Carmen de Torres, Jaume Mora, Charles G. Eberhart, Erwin G. Van Meir, Toshihiro Kumabe, Pim J. French, Johan M. Kros, Nada Jabado, Boleslaw Lach, Ian F. Pollack, Ronald L. Hamilton, Amulya A. Nageswara Rao, Caterina Giannini, James M. Olson, László Bognár, Almos Klekner, Karel Zitterbart, Joanna J. Phillips, Reid C. Thompson, Michael K. Cooper, Joshua B. Rubin, Linda M. Liau, Miklós Garami, Peter Hauser, Kay Ka Wai Li, Ho-Keung Ng, Wai Sang Poon, G. Yancey Gillespie, Jennifer A. Chan, Shin Jung, Roger E. McLendon, Eric M. Thompson, David Zagzag, Rajeev Vibhakar, Young Shin Ra, Maria Luisa Garre, Ulrich Schüller, Tomoko Shofuda, Claudia C. Faria, Enrique López-Aguilar, Gelareh Zadeh, Chi-Chung Hui, Vijay Ramaswamy, Swneke D. Bailey, Steven J. Jones, Andrew J. Mungall, Richard A. Moore, John A. Calarco, Lincoln D. Stein, Gary D. Bader, Jüri Reimand, Jiannis Ragoussis, William A. Weiss, Marco A. Marra, Hiromichi Suzuki, Michael D. Taylor

Abstract

Abstract

Sonic hedgehog medulloblastoma encompasses a clinically and molecularly diverse group of cancers of the developing central nervous system. Here, we use unbiased sequencing of the transcriptome across a large cohort of 250 tumors to reveal differences among molecular subtypes of the disease, and demonstrate the previously unappreciated importance of non-coding RNA transcripts. We identify alterations within the cAMP dependent pathway (GNAS, PRKAR1A) which converge on GLI2 activity and show that 18% of tumors have a genetic event that directly targets the abundance and/or stability of MYCN. Furthermore, we discover an extensive network of fusions in focally amplified regions encompassing GLI2, and several loss-of-function fusions in tumor suppressor genes PTCH1, SUFU and NCOR1. Molecular convergence on a subset of genes by nucleotide variants, copy number aberrations, and gene fusions highlight the key roles of specific pathways in the pathogenesis of Sonic hedgehog medulloblastoma and open up opportunities for therapeutic intervention.