Hydroxyurea induces a senescent, non-malignant, immunogenic state in neuroblastoma cells – a new therapeutic strategy?

Oncogene inactivation can cause cellular senescence, a permanent state of proliferative arrest, resulting in tumor “regression“. In MYCN-amplified (MNA) neuroblastoma (NB) long-term hydroxyurea (HU) treatment leads to the elimination of episomal MNA and senescence induction in vitro. The aim was to characterize senescent NB cells and describe their functional role. MLPA and arrayCGH confirmed that MNA is the only chromosomal aberration that changes between non-senescent and senescent NB-cell lines. Gene expression profiling revealed that senescent NB cells down-regulate unfavorable (e.g. survivin) and up-regulat…