Engineering Genetic Predisposition in Human Neuroepithelial Stem Cells Recapitulates Medulloblastoma Tumorigenesis

Human neural stem cell cultures provide progenitor cells that are potential cells of origin for brain cancers. However, the extent to which genetic predisposition to tumor formation can be faithfully captured in stem cell lines is uncertain. Here, we evaluated neuroepithelial stem (NES) cells, representative of cerebellar progenitors. We transduced NES cells with MYCN, observing medulloblastoma upon orthotopic implantation in mice. Significantly, transcriptomes and patterns of DNA methylation from xenograft tumors were globally more representative of human medulloblastoma compared to a MYCN-driven genetically engineered mouse model. Orthotopic transplantation of NES cells generated from Gorlin syndrome patients, who are predisposed to medulloblastoma due to germline-mutated PTCH1, also generated medulloblastoma. We engineered candidate cooperating mutations in Gorlin NES cells, with mutation of DDX3X or loss of GSE1 both accelerating tumorigenesis. These findings demonstrate that human NES cells provide a potent experimental resource for dissecting genetic causation in medulloblastoma. [Display omitted] •MYCN drives SHH medulloblastoma tumorigenesis in human iPSC-derived NES cells•NES cells from Gorlin syndrome (PTCH1+/−) iPSCs generate SHH medulloblastoma•Mutation of DDX3X or GSE1 accelerates tumorigenesis in Gorlin NES cells Huang, Tailor, et al. show that neuroepithelial stem (NES) cells derived from normal induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide a renewable human cell-based resource to evaluate genetic mutations in medulloblastoma. Misexpression of MYCN in both otherwise-normal NES cells and PTCH1+/− NES cells derived from patients with Gorlin syndrome each generated medulloblastoma in mice.