The MYB-related transcription factor MYPOP acts as a selective regulator of cancer cell growth
Abstract The MYB-related transcription factor and partner of profilin (MYPOP or p42POP) is a ubiquitously expressed yet understudied protein recently identified as a restriction factor of oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPV) and proposed tumor suppressor. Here we show that in HPV-transformed cervical cancer cells, MYPOP induces alterations in cell morphology, silences viral and cellular oncogenes including E6 and MYC , and stimulates the release of the cancer-killing cytokine interleukin-24. Transcriptomic and live-cell analyses reveal a rapid G1/S-phase arrest followed by loss of viable cervical cancer cells and induction of apoptosis. Moreover, MYPOP expression is broadly diminished across multiple human cancers, and its re-expression by both DNA- and mRNA-gene transfer markedly suppresses tumor cell proliferation while sparing normal epidermal keratinocytes. Similarly, murine Mypop inhibits mouse cancer cell growth. Collectively, our findings identify MYPOP as a selective suppressor of tumor cell proliferation across species in vitro and point to its potential relevance for future therapeutic investigation.
Authors
- Carina Osterhof (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1699-7410)
- Thomas Hankeln (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0677-8417)
- Sebastian Kreiter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8569-693X)
- Snježana Mikuličić (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2894-0542)
- Barbara Schrörs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9758-250X)
- Matthias Plath
- Tobias Bopp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3232-8065)
- Krishnaraj Rajalingam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4175-9633)
- Sascha Wagner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7122-6635)
- Mario Perković (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8969-5157)
- Johannes Strunk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1675-3421)
- Luise Florin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4310-7329)
- Mustafa Diken (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4391-4042)
- Tatjana Döring
- M Suchan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6625-6162)
- Fédérico Marini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3252-7758)
- Matthias Klein (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1312-1226)
- Andrea Nubbemeyer
- Alena Hüppner
- Mahwish Sial
- Alina Henrich
- Kirsten Freitag (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0400-7811)
- Anne Kölsch
- Marc A. Schneider (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8269-3821)
- Gregory Harms
- Annekathrin S. Nedwed
- Silke Brill
- Mika B. Sheriff
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Biology
- Published
- 2026-05-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10272-2
- Primary Topic
- Cervical Cancer and HPV Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00