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Bone morphogenetic protein-7 is a MYC target with prosurvival functions in childhood medulloblastoma

Oncogene volume 30, pages 2823–2835 (2011)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 07 December 2022

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Abstract

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant brain tumor in children. It is known that overexpression and/or amplification of the MYC oncogene is associated with poor clinical outcome, but the molecular mechanisms and the MYC downstream effectors in MB remain still elusive. Besides contributing to elucidate how progression of MB takes place, most importantly, the identification of novel MYC-target genes will suggest novel candidates for targeted therapy in MB. A group of 209 MYC-responsive genes was obtained from a complementary DNA microarray analysis of a MB-derived cell line, following MYC overexpression and silencing. Among the MYC-responsive genes, we identified the members of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway, which have a crucial role during the development of the cerebellum. In particular, the gene BMP7 was identified as a direct target of MYC. A positive correlation between MYC and BMP7 expression was documented by analyzing two distinct sets of primary MB samples. Functional studies in vitro using a small-molecule inhibitor of the BMP/SMAD signaling pathway reproduced the effect of the small interfering RNA-mediated silencing of BMP7. Both approaches led to a block of proliferation in a panel of MB cells and to inhibition of SMAD phosphorylation. Altogether, our findings indicate that high MYC levels drive BMP7 overexpression, promoting cell survival in MB cells. This observation suggests the potential relevance of targeting the BMP/SMAD pathway as a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of childhood MB.

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Acknowledgements

Giulio Fiaschetti and Deborah Castelletti were supported by the European Community FP6, project STREP (EET-pipeline, number: 037260).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland

    G Fiaschetti, D Castelletti, T Shalaby & M A Grotzer

  2. Functional Genomics Center Zurich, UZH/ETH, Zurich, Switzerland

    S Zoller

  3. Division of Hematology/Oncology, University Children's Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany

    A Schramm & A Eggert

  4. Department Tumor Genetics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

    C Schroeder & F Westermann

  5. Section of Molecular Pathology, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, Lyon, France

    M Nagaishi & H Ohgaki

  6. Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    D Stearns

  7. Institute of Neurology (Edinger Institute) Goethe-University Frankfurt, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

    M Mittelbronn

  8. Department Radiation Oncology, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland

    M Pruschy

  9. Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Department of Clinical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    A Arcaro

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  1. G Fiaschetti
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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Oncogene website

The original online version of this article was revised: Following publication of this article, the authors noted Figure 1b incorrectly reported beta-tubulin as the control used for the Western blot analysis when beta-actin was used. In addition, in this figure, the control bands of DAOY cells M2.1 and M14 were inadvertently swapped. The authors apologise for the inconvenience caused and confirm this does not have any impact on the interpretation of the results. The original article has been corrected.

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Fiaschetti, G., Castelletti, D., Zoller, S. et al. Bone morphogenetic protein-7 is a MYC target with prosurvival functions in childhood medulloblastoma. Oncogene 30, 2823–2835 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2011.10

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