Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
Sci Adv. 2023 Apr 28;9(17):eade8184. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ade8184.
Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a common soft tissue sarcoma in children that resembles developing skeletal muscle. Unlike normal muscle cells, RMS cells fail to differentiate despite expression of the myogenic determination protein MYOD. The TWIST2 transcription factor is frequently overexpressed in fusion-negative RMS (FN-RMS). TWIST2 blocks differentiation by inhibiting MYOD activity in myoblasts, but its role in FN-RMS pathogenesis is incompletely understood. Here, we show that knockdown of TWIST2 enables FN-RMS cells to exit the cell cycle and undergo terminal myogenesis. TWIST2 knockdown also substantially reduces tumor growth in a mouse xenograft model of FN-RMS. Mechanistically, TWIST2 controls H3K27 acetylation at distal enhancers by interacting with the chromatin remodelers SMARCA4 and CHD3 to activate growth-related target genes and repress myogenesis-related target genes. These findings provide insights into the role of TWIST2 in maintaining an undifferentiated and tumorigenic state of FN-RMS and highlight the potential of suppressing TWIST2-regulated pathways to treat FN-RMS.
横纹肌肉瘤(RMS)是一种常见的儿童软组织肉瘤,类似于发育中的骨骼肌。与正常肌肉细胞不同,尽管横纹肌肉瘤细胞表达肌节决定蛋白 MYOD,但它们未能分化。TWIST2 转录因子在融合阴性 RMS(FN-RMS)中经常过表达。TWIST2 通过抑制成肌细胞中 MYOD 的活性来阻止分化,但它在 FN-RMS 发病机制中的作用尚不完全清楚。在这里,我们表明 TWIST2 的敲低使 FN-RMS 细胞能够退出细胞周期并进行终末肌发生。TWIST2 的敲低还显著减少了 FN-RMS 的小鼠异种移植模型中的肿瘤生长。在机制上,TWIST2 通过与染色质重塑剂 SMARCA4 和 CHD3 相互作用,控制远端增强子处的 H3K27 乙酰化,从而激活与生长相关的靶基因并抑制与肌发生相关的靶基因。这些发现提供了 TWIST2 在维持 FN-RMS 的未分化和肿瘤发生状态中的作用的见解,并强调了抑制 TWIST2 调节的途径来治疗 FN-RMS 的潜力。