TCF12 Deficiency Impairs the Proliferation of Glioblastoma Tumor Cells and Improves Survival

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Human glioblastoma is the most common and malignant primary brain tumor and is universally fatal. Currently, there is no cure for the disease. One major hurdle to developing effective therapies against GBM has been our lack of understanding of regulators of crucial processes and features that define and sustain tumor cells. This study reveals a novel role of transcription factor TCF12 in the regulation of proliferation in GBM tumors using human patient-derived cell lines and an in vivo mouse GBM model. We find that TCF12 deficiency impairs the proliferation of tumor cells in vitro and slows tumor growth in vivo resulting in improved overall survival. We also find that TCF12 regulates the expression of some key regulators of the cell cycle in tumor cells. ABSTRACT: Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-wild-type glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor which carries a very poor overall prognosis and is universally fatal. Understanding the transcriptional regulation of the proliferation of GBM tumor cells is critical for developing novel and effective treatments. In this study, we investigate the role of the transcription factor TCF12 in the regulation of GBM proliferation using human and murine GBM cell lines and an in vivo GBM xenograft model. Our study shows that TCF12 deficiency severely impairs proliferation of tumor cells in vitro by disrupting/blocking the G1 to S phase transition. We also discover that TCF12 loss significantly improves animal survival and that TCF12-deficient tumors grow much slower in vivo. Overexpression of TCF12, on the other hand, leads to an increase in the proliferation of tumor cells in vitro and more aggressive tumor progression in vivo. Interestingly, loss of TCF12 leads to upregulation of signature genes of the oligodendrocytic lineage in GBM stem cells, suggesting a role for TCF12 in inhibiting differentiation along the oligodendrocytic lineage. Transcriptomic data also reveals that loss of TCF12 leads to dysregulation of the expression of key genes in the cell cycle. Our work demonstrates critical roles of TCF12 in GBM tumor progression.