Language
English
Publication Date
4-1-2024
Journal
Nature Cancer
DOI
10.1038/s43018-024-00736-x
PMID
38413714
PMCID
PMC11056319
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
2-27-2024
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Abstract
Current anticancer therapies cannot eliminate all cancer cells, which hijack normal arginine methylation as a means to promote their maintenance via unknown mechanisms. Here we show that targeting protein arginine N-methyltransferase 9 (PRMT9), whose activities are elevated in blasts and leukemia stem cells (LSCs) from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), eliminates disease via cancer-intrinsic mechanisms and cancer-extrinsic type I interferon (IFN)-associated immunity. PRMT9 ablation in AML cells decreased the arginine methylation of regulators of RNA translation and the DNA damage response, suppressing cell survival. Notably, PRMT9 inhibition promoted DNA damage and activated cyclic GMP-AMP synthase, which underlies the type I IFN response. Genetically activating cyclic GMP-AMP synthase in AML cells blocked leukemogenesis. We also report synergy of a PRMT9 inhibitor with anti-programmed cell death protein 1 in eradicating AML. Overall, we conclude that PRMT9 functions in survival and immune evasion of both LSCs and non-LSCs; targeting PRMT9 may represent a potential anticancer strategy.
Keywords
Protein-Arginine N-Methyltransferases, Humans, Neoplastic Stem Cells, Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute, Nucleotidyltransferases, Arginine, Methylation, Animals, Mice, Interferon Type I, DNA Damage, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Survival, Cyclic Guanosine Monophosphate-Adenosine Monophosphate Synthase, Cancer, Tumour immunology
Published Open-Access
yes
Recommended Citation
Dong, Haojie; He, Xin; Zhang, Lei; et al., "Targeting PRMT9-Mediated Arginine Methylation Suppresses Cancer Stem Cell Maintenance and Elicits cGAS-Mediated Anticancer Immunity" (2024). Faculty, Staff and Students Publications. 8137.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/baylor_docs/8137