Although it is not yet known if this interaction contributes to neuroblastoma disease pathogenesis, it is intriguing that the interaction occurs at the promoter regions of several genes important for the development of neuroblastoma, including ALK, AURKA and BDNF.
Here we show that the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), originally identified as a fusion kinase in a subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NPM-ALK) and more recently in adenocarcinoma of lung (EML4-ALK), is also a frequent target of genetic alteration in advanced neuroblastoma.
The R1275Qneuroblastoma mutant and certain ATP-competitive inhibitors stabilize alternative activation loop conformations of anaplastic lymphoma kinase.
Furthermore, our data represent the first demonstration of ALK-wt transforming capacity, as ALK-wt expression in JoMa1 cells, likewise ALK-F1174L, or ALK-R1275Q, in absence of exogenous Myc-ERT activity, was sufficient to induce the formation of aggressive and undifferentiated neural crest cell-derived tumors, but not to drive NB development.
Here, we evaluated the ALK mutational status of NB samples by analysis of circulating DNA, using the droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) system. ddPCR assays was developed for the detection of ALK mutations at F1174 and R1275 hotspots found in NB tumors and was applied for the analysis of circulating DNA obtained from 200 μL of serum or plasma samples collected from 114 patients with NB.
Our biochemical and in vivo data provide the preclinical rationale for fast-tracking the development of this agent in children with relapsed/refractory ALK-mutant neuroblastoma.
Although expression of ALKF1174L resulted in enhanced proliferation of sympathetic ganglion progenitors and increased the size of the sympathetic ganglia, it was insufficient to cause neuroblastoma.
We have shown that the combination of crizotinib and an inhibitor of downstream signaling induces a favorable response in transgenic mice bearing ALK(F1174L)/MYCN-positive neuroblastoma.
Herein, we have illustrated the dynamic conformational property of wild-type ALK as well as the kinase activation equilibrium variation induced by two neuroblastoma mutations (R1275Q and Y1278S) and ATP binding by performing enhanced sampling accelerated Molecular Dynamics (aMD) simulations.
We carried out a meta-analysis of 709 neuroblastoma tumors to determine their frequency and mutation spectrum in relation to genomic and clinical parameters, and studied the prognostic significance of ALK copy number and expression.
To address the possibility that ALK activation may occur through genomic rearrangements as detected in other cancers, we first took advantage of high-resolution array-comparative genomic hybridization to search for ALK rearrangements in NB samples.