Stress attenuation by the adrenergic-specific lncRNA NESPR prevents cell death in neuroblastoma cells

Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer of the sympathetic nervous system characterized by heterogeneous cell states that mirror normal differentiation trajectories. Each state is governed by a core regulatory transcriptional circuitry that reinforces cell identity through an autoregulatory feedforward loop. We identified the long non-coding RNA NESPR as specifically expressed in adrenergic neuroblastoma cells. NESPR expression correlates with high-risk neuroblastoma clinical parameters and poor patient survival. NESPR is located within an insulated gene neighborhood alongside PHOX2B, a master transcription factor of the adrenergic identity. NESPR depletion reduced cell proliferation and increased caspase activity in neuroblastoma cell lines, and NESPR knockout in a neuroblastoma zebrafish model led to reduced tumor penetrance. Subcellular localization revealed NESPR to be a cytosolic long non-coding RNA, suggesting a trans-regulatory function. RNA-sequencing following NESPR depletion revealed a shift from an adrenergic to a mesenchymal cell state, due to proteotoxic stress-induced molecular reprogramming. These findings suggest NESPR as a regulator of neuroblastoma cell identity with potential therapeutic opportunities in high-risk neuroblastoma cases.