The TINCR (Terminal differentiation-Induced Non-Coding RNA) gene is selectively expressed in epithelium tissues and is involved in the control of human epidermal differentiation and wound healing. Despite its initial report as a long non-coding RNA, the TINCR locus codes for a highly conserved ubiquitin-like microprotein associated with keratinocyte differentiation. Here we report the identification of TINCR as a tumor suppressor in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). TINCR is upregulated by UV-induced DNA damage in a TP53-dependent manner in human keratinocytes. Decreased TINCR protein expression is prevalently found in skin and head and neck squamous cell tumors and TINCR expression suppresses the growth of SCC cells in vitro and in vivo. Consistently, Tincr knockout mice show accelerated tumor development following UVB skin carcinogenesis and increased penetrance of invasive SCCs. Finally, genetic analyses identify loss-of-function mutations and deletions encompassing the TINCR gene in SCC clinical samples supporting a tumor suppressor role in human cancer. Altogether, these results demonstrate a role for TINCR as protein coding tumor suppressor gene recurrently lost in squamous cell carcinomas.

Relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is associated with resistance to chemotherapy and poor prognosis. Gain-of-function mutations in the 5'-nucleotidase, cytosolic II (NT5C2) gene induce resistance to 6-mercaptopurine and are selectively present in relapsed ALL. Yet, the mechanisms involved in NT5C2 mutation-driven clonal evolution during the initiation of leukaemia, disease progression and relapse remain unknown. Here we use a conditional-and-inducible leukaemia model to demonstrate that expression of NT5C2(R367Q), a highly prevalent relapsed-ALL NT5C2 mutation, induces resistance to chemotherapy with 6-mercaptopurine at the cost of impaired leukaemia cell growth and leukaemia-initiating cell activity. The loss-of-fitness phenotype of NT5C2^+/R367Q mutant cells is associated with excess export of purines to the extracellular space and depletion of the intracellular purine-nucleotide pool. Consequently, blocking guanosine synthesis by inhibition of inosine-5'-monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) induced increased cytotoxicity against NT5C2-mutant leukaemia lymphoblasts. These results identify the fitness cost of NT5C2 mutation and resistance to chemotherapy as key evolutionary drivers that shape clonal evolution in relapsed ALL and support a role for IMPDH inhibition in the treatment of ALL.