Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS) comprises a rare highly malignant tumor presumed to be associated with skeletal muscle lineage in children. The hallmark of the majority of ARMS is a chromosomal translocation that generates the PAX3-FOXO1 fusion protein, which is an oncogenic transcription factor responsible for the development of the malignant phenotype of this tumor. ARMS cells are dependent to the oncogenic activity of PAX3-FOXO1 and its expression status in ARMS tumors correlates with worst patient outcome, suggesting that blocking this activity of PAX3-FOXO1 may be an attractive therapeutic strategy against this fusion-positive disease. In this study, we screened small-molecule chemical libraries for inhibitors of PAX3-FOXO1 transcriptional activity using a cell-based readout system. We identified the Sarco/Endoplasmic Reticulum Ca2+-ATPases (SERCA) inhibitor thapsigargin as an effective inhibitor of PAX3-FOXO1. Subsequent experiments in ARMS cells demonstrated that activation of AKT by thapsigargin inhibited PAX3-FOXO1 activity via phosphorylation. Moreover, this AKT activation appears to be associated with the effects of thapsigargin on intracellular calcium levels. Furthermore, thapsigargin inhibited the binding of PAX3-FOXO1 to target genes and subsequently promoted its proteosomal degradation. In addition, thapsigargin treatment decreases the growth and invasive capacity of ARMS cells while inducing apoptosis in vitro. Finally, thapsigargin can suppress the growth of an ARMS xenograft tumor in vivo. These data reveal that thapsigargin-induced activation of AKT is an effective mechanism to inhibit PAX3-FOXO1 and a potential agent for targeted therapy against ARMS.

BackgroundMaster transcription factor MyoD can initiate the entire myogenic gene expression program which differentiates proliferating myoblasts into multinucleated myotubes. We previously demonstrated that histone methyltransferase KMT1A associates with and inhibits MyoD in proliferating myoblasts, and must be removed to allow differentiation to proceed. It is known that pro-myogenic signaling pathways such as PI3K/AKT and p38α MAPK play critical roles in enforcing associations between MyoD and transcriptional activators, while removing repressors. However, the mechanism which displaces KMT1A from MyoD, and the signals responsible, remain unknown.MethodsTo investigate the role of p38α on MyoD-mediated differentiation, we utilized C2C12 myoblast cells as an in vitro model. p38α activity was either augmented via overexpression of a constitutively active upstream kinase or blocked via lentiviral delivery of a specific p38α shRNA or treatment with p38α/β inhibitor SB203580. Overexpression of KMT1A in these cells via lentiviral delivery was also used as a system wherein terminal differentiation is impeded by high levels of KMT1A.ResultsThe association of KMT1A and MyoD persisted, and differentiation was blocked in C2C12 myoblasts specifically after pharmacologic or genetic blockade of p38α. Conversely, forced activation of p38α was sufficient to activate MyoD and overcome the differentiation blockade in KMT1A-overexpressing C2C12 cells. Consistent with this finding, KMT1A phosphorylation during C2C12 differentiation correlated strongly with the activation of p38α. This phosphorylation was prevented by the inhibition of p38α. Biochemical studies further revealed that KMT1A can be a direct substrate for p38α. Importantly, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) studies show that the removal of KMT1A-mediated transcription repressive histone tri-methylation (H3K9me3) from the promoter of the Myogenin gene, a critical regulator of muscle differentiation, is dependent on p38α activity in C2C12 cells. Elevated p38α activity was also sufficient to remove this repressive H3K9me3 mark. Moreover, ChIP studies from C2C12 cells show that p38α activity is necessary and sufficient to establish active H3K9 acetylation on the Myogenin promoter.ConclusionsActivation of p38α displaces KMT1A from MyoD to initiate myogenic gene expression upon induction of myoblasts differentiation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13395-016-0100-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (aRMS) is an aggressive subtype of the most common soft tissue cancer in children. A hallmark of aRMS tumors is incomplete myogenic differentiation despite expression of master myogenic regulators such as MyoD. We previously reported that histone methyltransferase KMT1A suppresses MyoD function to maintain an undifferentiated state in aRMS cells, and that loss of KMT1A is sufficient to induce differentiation and suppress malignant phenotypes in these cells. Here, we develop a chemical compound screening approach using MyoD-responsive luciferase reporter myoblast cells to identify compounds that alleviate suppression of MyoD-mediated differentiation by KMT1A. A screen of pharmacological compounds yielded the topoisomerase I (TOP1) poison camptothecin (CPT) as the strongest hit in our assay system. Furthermore, treatment of aRMS cells with clinically relevant CPT derivative irinotecan restores MyoD function, and myogenic differentiation in vitro and in a xenograft model. This differentiated phenotype was associated with downregulation of the KMT1A protein. Remarkably, loss of KMT1A in CPT-treated cells occurs independently of its well-known anti-TOP1 mechanism. We further demonstrate that CPT can directly inhibit KMT1A activity in vitro. Collectively, these findings uncover a novel function of CPT that downregulates KMT1A independently of CPT-mediated TOP1 inhibition and permits differentiation of aRMS cells.

<p>PDF file - 890K, Supplementary Figure S1. Validation of PAX3-FOXO1-mediated reporter luciferase activity in U20325-PRSLuc reporter cells and evidence displaying U20325 cells does not express PAX3.</p>