Heterotypic nucleosomes and PRC2 drive DIPG oncogenesis

Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG) are characterized by a heterozygous lysine-to-methionine mutation of histone H3 (H3K27M) that potently reduces Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) methylation of wild-type histone H3K27 (H3K27wt). The role of H3K27M and reduced H3K27wt methylation in DIPG pathogenesis has yet to be determined. Here, we have performed epigenomic profiling of patient-derived H3K27M mutant DIPG cells and demonstrate that H3K27M resides in nucleosomes with H3K27wt acetylation (H3K27ac), and H3K27M-H3K27ac containing nucleosomes co-localize with bromodomain proteins at actively transcribed genes and that PRC2 is excluded from H3K27M occupied regions. With respect to therapeutic implications of these observations, we demonstrate that pharmacologic bromodomain protein inhibition suppresses tumor growth in vivo. In total, our results indicate that H3K27M promotes H3K27ac at the expense of H3K27 methylation, and points to bromodomain protein inhibition as a clinical strategy for treating DIPG. Examination of different histone modifications, histone mutant and chromatin modifiers in 2 different DIPG patient-derived cells. Control cells such as HCT116 were used to test H3K27M antibody specificity