Aggressive high-grade NF2 mutant meningiomas downregulate oncogenic YAP signaling via the upregulation of VGLL4 and FAT3/4.

Background: Meningiomas are the most common primary central nervous system tumors in adults. Although generally benign, a subset is of higher grade and ultimately fatal. Around half of all meningiomas harbor inactivating mutations in NF2, leading to deregulation of oncogenic YAP1 activity. While benign NF2 mutant meningiomas exhibit few genetic events in addition to NF2 inactivation, aggressive high-grade NF2 mutant meningiomas frequently harbor a highly aberrant genome. It is unclear if NF2 mutant meningiomas of different grades are equally reliant on YAP activity.

Methods: We analyzed bulk and single-cell RNA-Seq data from a large cohort of human meningiomas for the expression of YAP1 target genes and Hippo effectors as well as in vitro cell line experiments.

Results: Aggressive NF2 mutant meningiomas harbor decreased expression levels of YAP1 target genes and increased expression levels of the YAP1 antagonist VGLL4 and the upstream regulators FAT3/4 compared to their benign counterparts. Decreased expression of YAP1 target genes as well as high expression of VGLL4 and FAT3/4 is significantly associated with an increased risk of recurrence. In vitro, overexpression of VGLL4 resulted in the downregulation of YAP activity in benign NF2 mutant meningioma cells, confirming the direct link between VGLL4 expression and decreased levels of YAP activity observed in aggressive NF2 mutant meningiomas.

Conclusions: Our results shed new insight into the biology of benign and aggressive NF2 mutant meningiomas and may have important implications for the efficacy of therapies targeting oncogenic YAP1 activity in NF2 mutant meningiomas.