HAND2 Assists MYCN Enhancer Invasion to Regulate a Noradrenergic Neuroblastoma Phenotype

Noradrenergic neuroblastoma is characterized by a core transcriptional regulatory circuitry (CRC) comprised of transcription factors (TF) such as PHOX2B, HAND2, and GATA3, which form a network with MYCN. At normal physiologic levels, MYCN mainly binds to promoters but when aberrantly upregulated as in neuroblastoma, MYCN also binds to enhancers. Here, we investigated how MYCN invades enhancers and whether CRC TFs play a role in this process. HAND2 was found to regulate chromatin accessibility and to assist MYCN binding to enhancers. Moreover, HAND2 cooperated with MYCN to compete with nucleosomes to regulate global gene transcription. The cooperative interaction between MYCN and HAND2 could be targeted with an Aurora A kinase inhibitor plus a histone deacetylase inhibitor, resulting in potent downregulation of both MYCN and the CRC TFs and suppression of MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma tumor growth. This study identifies cooperation between MYCN and HAND2 in neuroblastoma and demonstrates that simultaneously targeting MYCN and CRC TFs is an effective way to treat this aggressive pediatric tumor.

HAND2 and MYCN compete with nucleosomes to regulate global gene transcription and to drive a malignant neuroblastoma phenotype.