CSNK2B

Overview

CSNK2B encodes the regulatory beta subunit of Casein Kinase 2 (CK2), a constitutively active serine/threonine kinase with roles in WNT pathway regulation, cell survival, and the DNA damage response. CK2 phosphorylates components of the beta-catenin destruction complex and has been implicated in modulating WNT/beta-catenin signaling activity. In medulloblastoma, CSNK2B emerges as a recurrently mutated gene specifically enriched in the WNT subgroup, suggesting a cooperative role with CTNNB1 mutations in driving aberrant WNT pathway activation.

Alterations observed in the corpus

  • CSNK2B is recurrently mutated in medulloblastoma WES of 92 tumors (Broad cohort), with mutations co-occurring with CTNNB1 mutations in the WNT subgroup, implicating it as a cooperative driver in WNT-subgroup medulloblastoma PMID:22820256
  • Clinically actionable mutation identified in 14% of WNT-subgroup medulloblastomas in the ICGC/CBTTC cohort (n=491) PMID:28726821.

Cancer types (linked)

  • MB (medulloblastoma): Recurrent mutations in the WNT subgroup, co-occurring with CTNNB1 activating mutations; Broad WES cohort (92 tumors) PMID:22820256

Co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity

  • CSNK2B mutations co-occur with CTNNB1 mutations in the WNT subgroup of medulloblastoma PMID:22820256

Therapeutic relevance

  • CK2 inhibitors are under investigation in other cancer contexts; the co-occurrence of CSNK2B and CTNNB1 mutations in WNT-subgroup medulloblastoma may define a subset with therapeutic vulnerability to combined WNT pathway targeting PMID:22820256

Open questions

  • Whether CSNK2B mutations are driver events or passengers in the context of CTNNB1-mutant WNT medulloblastoma is not established.

Sources

This page was processed by entity-page-writer on 2026-05-06. - PMID:28726821

This page was processed by wiki-cli on 2026-05-15.