Dissecting super-enhancer driven transcriptional dependencies reveals novel therapeutic strategies and targets for group 3 subtype medulloblastoma

BACKGROUND: Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor and group 3 subtype medulloblastoma (G3-MB) exhibits the worst prognosis. Super enhancers (SEs) are large clusters of enhancers that play important roles in cancer through transcriptional control of cell identity genes, oncogenes and tumor-dependent genes. Dissecting SE-driven transcriptional dependencies of cancer leads to identification of novel oncogenic mechanisms, therapeutic strategies and targets. METHODS: Integrative SE analyses of primary tissues and patient-derived tumor cell lines of G3-MB were performed to extract the conserved SE-associated gene signatures and their oncogenic potentials were evaluated by gene expression, tumor-dependency and patient prognosis analyses. SE-associated subtype-specific upregulated tumor-dependent genes, which were revealed as members of SE-driven core transcriptional regulatory network of G3-MB, were then subjected to functional validation and mechanistic investigation. SE-associated therapeutic potential was further explored by genetic or pharmaceutical targeting of SE complex components or SE-associated subtype-specific upregulated tumor-dependent genes individually or in combination, and the underlying therapeutic mechanisms were also examined. RESULTS: The identified conserved SE-associated transcripts of G3-MB tissues and cell lines were enriched of subtype-specifically upregulated tumor-dependent genes and MB patients harboring enrichment of those transcripts exhibited worse prognosis. Fourteen such conserved SE-associated G3-MB-specific upregulated tumor-dependent genes were identified to be members of SE-driven core transcriptional regulatory network of G3-MB, including three well-recognized TFs (MYC, OTX2 and CRX) and eleven newly identified downstream effector genes (ARL4D, AUTS2, BMF, IGF2BP3, KIF21B, KLHL29, LRP8, MARS1, PSMB5, SDK2 and SSBP3). An OTX2-SE-ARL4D regulatory axis was further revealed to represent a subtype-specific tumor dependency and therapeutic target of G3-MB via contributing to maintaining cell cycle progression and inhibiting neural differentiation of tumor cells. Moreover, BET inhibition with CDK7 inhibition or proteasome inhibition, two combinatory strategies of targeting SE complex components (BRD4, CDK7) or SE-associated effector gene (PSMB5), were shown to exhibit synergistic therapeutic effects against G3-MB via stronger suppression of SE-associated transcription or higher induction of ER stress, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study verifies the oncogenic role and therapeutic potential of SE-driven transcriptional dependencies of G3-MB, resulting in better understanding of its tumor biology and identification of novel SE-associated therapeutic strategies and targets. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13046-022-02506-y.