EZH2 depletion potentiates MYC degradation in neuroblastoma and small-cell lung cancer

Efforts to therapeutically target EZH2 have generally focused on inhibition of its methyltransferase activity, although it remains less clear whether this is the central mechanism whereby EZH2 promotes cancer. We demonstrate that EZH2 interacts with both MYC family oncoproteins, C-MYC and N-MYC, and promotes their stabilization in a methyltransferase-independent manner. By competing against the SCFFbw7 ubiquitin ligase to bind MYC, EZH2 counteracted Fbw7-mediated MYC polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. Depletion, but not enzymatic inhibition, of EZH2 induced robust MYC degradation and inhibited tumor cell growth in MYC-driven neuroblastoma and small-cell lung cancer. These findings unveil the MYC family proteins as critical EZH2 oncogenic effectors and EZH2 pharmacologic degraders as potential MYC-selective cancer therapeutics, pointing out that MYC-driven cancers may develop inherent resistance to canonical EZH2 enzymatic inhibitors currently in clinical development. Overall design: Determination of binding profile of MYCN and Pol II in EZH2 knockdown and control SK-N-BE2 cells.