PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Chang-Chih Wu
AU  - Shirui Hou
AU  - Brent A. Orr
AU  - Yong Ha Youn
AU  - Fanny Roth
AU  - Charles G. Eberhart
AU  - Young-Goo Han
TI  - mTORC1-mediated inhibition of 4EBP1 is essential for Hedgehog (HH) signaling and can be targeted to suppress HH-driven medulloblastoma
AID  - 10.1101/130872
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 130872
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/25/130872.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/25/130872.full
AB  - Mechanistic target of rapamycin (MTOR) cooperates with Hedgehog (HH) signaling, but the underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, we provide genetic, biochemical, and pharmacologic evidence that MTOR complex 1 (mTORC1)-dependent translation is a prerequisite for HH signaling. The genetic loss of mTORC1 function inhibited HH signaling– driven growth of the cerebellum and medulloblastoma. Inhibiting translation or mTORC1 blocked HH signaling. Depleting 4EBP1, an mTORC1 target that inhibits translation, alleviated the dependence of HH signaling on mTORC1. Consistent with this, phosphorylated 4EBP1 levels were elevated in HH signaling–driven medulloblastomas in mice and humans. In mice, an mTORC1 inhibitor suppressed medulloblastoma driven by a mutant SMO that is resistant to an SMO inhibitor in the clinic, prolonging the survival of the mice. Our study reveals mTORC1-mediated translation to be a key component of HH signaling and an important target for treating medulloblastoma and other cancers driven by HH signaling.