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Inhibition of Eyes Absent Homolog 4 expression induces malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor necrosis

Oncogene volume 29, pages 368–379 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) are aggressive sarcomas without effective therapeutics. Bioinformatics was used to identify potential therapeutic targets. Paired Box (PAX), Eyes Absent (EYA), Dachsund (DACH) and Sine Oculis (SIX) genes, which form a regulatory interactive network in Drosophila, were found to be dysregulated in human MPNST cell lines and solid tumors. We identified a decrease in DACH1 expression, and increases in the expressions of PAX6, EYA1, EYA2, EYA4, and SIX1–4 genes. Consistent with the observation that half of MPNSTs develop in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) patients, subsequent to NF1 mutation, we found that exogenous expression of the NF1-GTPase activating protein-related domain normalized DACH1 expression. EYA4 mRNA was elevated more than 100-fold as estimated by quantitative real-time PCR in most MPNST cell lines. In vitro, suppression of EYA4 expression using short hairpin RNA reduced cell adhesion and migration and caused cellular necrosis without affecting cell proliferation or apoptotic cell death. MPNST cells expressing shEYA4 either failed to form tumors in nude mice or formed very small tumors, with extensive necrosis but similar levels of proliferation and apoptosis as control cells. Our findings identify a role of EYA4 and possibly interacting SIX and DACH proteins in MPNSTs and suggest the EYA4 pathway as a rational therapeutic target.

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Acknowledgements

Viral vectors were produced by the Viral Vector Core at the Translational Core Laboratories, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Cincinnati, OH, USA. We thank Yonatan Y Mahller for assistance with the xenograft experiments. This study was supported by an award from the DAMD (DOD W81XWH-04-1-0273) to NR and an NINDS Translational Neuroscience Award K01-NS049191-01A1 to SM.

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  1. S J Miller and Z D Lan: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    S J Miller, Z D Lan, A Hardiman, J Wu, J J Kordich, D M Patmore, J A Cancelas & N Ratner

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    R S Hegde

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    T P Cripe

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pathology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    M H Collins

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Miller, S., Lan, Z., Hardiman, A. et al. Inhibition of Eyes Absent Homolog 4 expression induces malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor necrosis. Oncogene 29, 368–379 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2009.360

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