Suenaga et al. found that a cis-antisense gene of MYCN, called NCYM, encodes a protein that, like NMYC, is involved in the pathogenesis of neuroblastoma. They found that NCYM is co-amplified with MYCN in primary human neuroblastoma samples. Also, unlike Mycn transgenic mice, Mycn;Ncym transgenic mice developed metastatic neuroblastoma, which is reminiscent of human neuroblastoma with NMYC amplification. The authors showed that NCYM inhibits the activity of glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β), which targets NMYC for degradation, suggesting that NCYM promotes tumorigenesis by stabilizing NMYC.
References
Suenaga, Y. et al. NCYM, a cis-antisense gene of MYCN, encodes a de novo evolved protein that inhibits GSK3β resulting in the stabilization of MYCN in human neuroblastomas. PLoS Genet. 10, e1003996 (2014)
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Alderton, G. A new gene that promotes NMYC activity. Nat Rev Cancer 14, 155 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3698
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3698
