Journal: Cell Reports Medicine
Article Title: Molecular taxonomy of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors reveals BEND2 -fusions-driven transcriptional plasticity and therapeutic vulnerabilities
doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2026.102642
Figure Lengend Snippet: BEND2 fusions induce transcriptional reprogramming and morphological plasticity in pNET tumor cells (A) Phase-contrast microscopy images of BON1 cells at 48 h post-induction showing morphological changes following overexpression of BEND2 -only, CHD7 - BEND2 , EWSR1 - BEND2 , or mCherry control. (B) Bar plot showing the number of differentially expressed genes at 12 and 48 h across all BON1 cell line models, including EWSR1 (E), BEND2 (B), CHD7 - BEND2 (CB), and EWSR1 - BEND2 (EB), compared to the mCherry (M) control. (C) Heatmap illustrating transcriptomic clustering of BON1 cell lines at 48 h (D) Venn diagram showing overlapping significantly upregulated transcription factors (TFs) in CHD7 - BEND2 and EWSR1 - BEND2 models compared to controls at 12 h (E) Bar plot of ASCL1 expression across BON1 cell line models at 12 and 48 h. Data are represented as mean ± SEM. (F) Heatmap showing transcriptional activation of neurodevelopmental, mesenchymal, and immune-related TFs in fusion-expressing BON1 cells at 48 h, accompanied by ASCL1 downregulation, activation of GAST-high subtype-specific regulons, and upregulation of immune checkpoint genes PDCD1 and CD274 . (G) Heatmap illustrating temporal transcriptomic shifts in BON1 fusion models using a 50-gene classifier (25 neuroendocrine and 25 non-neuroendocrine genes) derived from human SCLC lines. (H) GSEA results showing transcriptional reprogramming at 48 h in BEND2 fusion lines compared to 12 h (I) Bar plot showing GATA6 expression uniquely and robustly upregulated in BEND2 fusion lines at both 12 and 48 h. Data are represented as mean ± SEM. (J) Bar plot showing specific upregulation of POMC in BON1 cells expressing EWSR1 - BEND2 at 48 h. Data are represented as mean ± SEM. (K) Bar plot showing markedly higher POMC expression in the EWSR1 - BEND2 -positive tumor compared to the CHD7 - BEND2 -positive tumor in the clinical cohort.
Article Snippet: Pre-processed bulk RNA-seq data from pNET clinical samples and cell lines (this study) , Mendeley Data , https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/r9m66rjtxy/1.
Techniques: Microscopy, Over Expression, Control, Expressing, Activation Assay, Derivative Assay