SHMT2 inhibition disrupts the TCF3 transcriptional survival program in Burkitt lymphoma. Author Anne Wilke, Carmen Doebele, Alena Zindel, Kwang Lee, Sara Rieke, Michele Ceribelli, Federico Comoglio, James Phelan, James Wang, Yana Pikman, Dominique Jahn, Björn Häupl, Constanze Schneider, Sebastian Scheich, Frances Tosto, Hanibal Bohnenberger, Philipp Stauder, Frank Schnütgen, Mikolaj Slabicki, Zana Coulibaly, Sebastian Wolf, Kamil Bojarczuk, Björn Chapuy, Christian Brandts, Philipp Stroebel, Caroline Lewis, Michael Engelke, Xincheng Xu, Hahn Kim, Thanh Dang, Roland Schmitz, Daniel Hodson, Kimberly Stegmaier, Henning Urlaub, Hubert Serve, Clemens Schmitt, Fernando Kreuz, Gero Knittel, Joshua Rabinowitz, Hans Reinhardt, Matthew Heiden, Craig Thomas, Louis Staudt, Thorsten Zenz, Thomas Oellerich Publication Year 2022 Type Journal Article Abstract Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is an aggressive lymphoma type that is currently treated by intensive chemoimmunotherapy. Despite the favorable clinical outcome for most patients with BL, chemotherapy-related toxicity and disease relapse remain major clinical challenges, emphasizing the need for innovative therapies. Using genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 screens, we identified B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling, specific transcriptional regulators, and one-carbon metabolism as vulnerabilities in BL. We focused on serine hydroxymethyltransferase 2 (SHMT2), a key enzyme in one-carbon metabolism. Inhibition of SHMT2 by either knockdown or pharmacological compounds induced anti-BL effects in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, SHMT2 inhibition led to a significant reduction of intracellular glycine and formate levels, which inhibited the mTOR pathway and thereby triggered autophagic degradation of the oncogenic transcription factor TCF3. Consequently, this led to a collapse of tonic BCR signaling, which is controlled by TCF3 and is essential for BL cell survival. In terms of clinical translation, we also identified drugs such as methotrexate that synergized with SHMT inhibitors. Overall, our study has uncovered the dependency landscape in BL, identified and validated SHMT2 as a drug target, and revealed a mechanistic link between SHMT2 and the transcriptional master regulator TCF3, opening up new perspectives for innovative therapies. Keywords Animals, Mice, Humans, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Survival, Drug Discovery, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Proteolysis, Gene Knockdown Techniques, Molecular Targeted Therapy, Formates, Glycine, Glycine Hydroxymethyltransferase, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors, Burkitt Lymphoma Journal Blood Volume 139 Issue 4 Pages 538-553 Date Published 2022 Jan 27 ISSN Number 1528-0020 DOI 10.1182/blood.2021012081 Alternate Journal Blood PMCID PMC8938936 PMID 34624079 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML