Non-canonical activating roles of RCoR2 sustain transcription in adrenergic neuroblastoma [RNA-Seq, 2]

CoREST complexes (LSD1, HDAC1/2 and RCoR1/2/3) are pivotal in neurodevelopment and have long been recognized as transcriptional repressors across various cancers. However, distinct roles of RCoR factors remain underexplored. Here, we unveil non-canonical functions of RCoR2 in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma (NB), underscoring its unique significance compared to its paralogues. This insight shifts the paradigm, highlighting RCoR2 as a key determinant of the NB chromatin landscape. Our findings demonstrate that RCoR2 is a super-enhancer driven gene, which, unlike RCoR1, acts as a positive regulator of gene expression as a partner of the adrenergic NB core regulatory circuitry (CRC). We propose a model in which RCoR2 facilitates interactions between CRC-bound enhancers and their associated transcription start sites, thereby sustaining the expression of genes critical for neuroblastoma cell survival. Thus, we identify RCoR2 as a critical vulnerability in high-risk neuroblastoma and a promising target for cancer therapeutics. To investigate the transcriptional roles of RCoR1 and RCoR2 we established neuroblastoma Kelly cell lines in which each target gene has been conditionally (dox-on) knocked down by shRNA. As a control, we also generated Kelly cells conditionally expressing a non-targeting shRNA (shCTRL). For each targeting and non-targeting shRNA, we then performed RNA-seq in non-treated conditions (NT) and treated conditions 72h.