In this movie, a dark skinned Rosa26-floxed stop-GNAQ Q209L/+; Mitf-cre/+ mouse exhibits hyper-activity, head tilt, and flipping onto its back in its home cage. A lighter skinned, normally behaved Mitf-cre/+ control littermate is included for comparison.
ARTICLE ABSTRACT
GNAQ and GNA11 are heterotrimeric G protein alpha subunits, which are mutated in a mutually exclusive pattern in most cases of uveal melanoma, one of the most aggressive cancers. Here we introduce the first transgenic mouse model of uveal melanoma, which develops cancers induced by expression of oncogenic GNAQQ209L under control of the Rosa26 promoter. Disease penetrance is 100% by 3 months of age, with 94% of mice also developing lung tumors. In this model, the Yap protein of the Hippo pathway is activated in the eyes, and blood vessels near the lesions in the head and lungs exhibit melanocytic invasion. While full transcription levels are not necessary for GNAQQ209L to transform mouse melanocytes, we obtained suggestive evidence of a selective advantage for increased GNAQQ209L expression in human tumors. Intriguingly, enforced expression of GNAQQ209L progressively eliminated melanocytes from the interfollicular epidermis in adults, possibly explaining the near absence of GNAQQ209 mutations in human epithelial melanomas. The mouse model also exhibited dermal nevi and melanocytic neoplasms of the central nervous system, accompanied by impaired hearing and balance, identifying a novel role for GNAQ in melanocyte-like cells of the inner ear. Overall, this model offers a new tool to dissect signaling by oncogenic GNAQ and to test potential therapeutics in an in vivo setting where GNAQQ209L mutations contribute to both the initiation and metastatic progression of uveal melanoma. Cancer Res; 75(16); 3384–97. ©2015 AACR.
