CAMKV kinase drives neuroblastoma growth and acts as a novel therapeutic target.

CAMKV kinase, a MYCN/MYC-regulated effector with intrinsic kinase activity, is essential for neuroblastoma growth and correlates with advanced disease and poor survival.

• Why it matters: High-risk neuroblastoma often involves MYCN amplification or MYC overexpression, but direct targeting of these transcription factors is difficult, creating a need for alternative therapeutic targets.
• What they did: Researchers used integrated transcriptomics, ChIP-seq, and phosphoproteomics to identify CAMKV as a central signaling hub, and demonstrated that both genetic depletion and small-molecule inhibition impair neuroblastoma cell proliferation and tumor growth.
• The result: Targeting CAMKV significantly impairs neuroblastoma growth in vitro and in vivo, establishing it as a promising therapeutic vulnerability for high-risk neuroblastoma.