Wang Wei, Shao Fei, Yang Xueying, Wang Juhong, Zhu Rongxuan, Yang Yannan, Zhao Gaoxiang, Guo Dong, Sun Yingli, Wang Jie, Xue Qi, Gao Shugeng, Gao Yibo, He Jie, Lu Zhimin
Department of Thoracic Surgery, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Department of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Nat Commun. 2021 Jun 21;12(1):3803. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23501-5.
The adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) is a frequently mutated tumour suppressor gene in cancers. However, whether APC is regulated at the epitranscriptomic level remains elusive. In this study, we analysed TCGA data and separated 200 paired oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) specimens and their adjacent normal tissues and demonstrated that methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) is highly expressed in tumour tissues. mA-RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing revealed that METTL3 upregulates the mA modification of APC, which recruits YTHDF for APC mRNA degradation. Reduced APC expression increases the expression of β-catenin and β-catenin-mediated cyclin D1, c-Myc, and PKM2 expression, thereby leading to enhanced aerobic glycolysis, ESCC cell proliferation, and tumour formation in mice. In addition, downregulated APC expression correlates with upregulated METTL3 expression in human ESCC specimens and poor prognosis in ESCC patients. Our findings reveal a mechanism by which the Wnt/β-catenin pathway is upregulated in ESCC via METTL3/YTHDF-coupled epitranscriptomal downregulation of APC.
腺瘤性结肠息肉病基因(APC)是癌症中经常发生突变的肿瘤抑制基因。然而,APC在表转录组水平上是否受到调控仍不清楚。在本研究中,我们分析了癌症基因组图谱(TCGA)数据,分离出200对食管鳞状细胞癌(ESCC)标本及其相邻正常组织,并证明甲基转移酶样3(METTL3)在肿瘤组织中高表达。m⁶A-RNA免疫沉淀测序显示,METTL3上调APC的m⁶A修饰,这会招募YTHDF促进APC mRNA降解。APC表达降低会增加β-连环蛋白以及β-连环蛋白介导的细胞周期蛋白D1、c-Myc和丙酮酸激酶M2(PKM2)的表达,从而导致有氧糖酵解增强、ESCC细胞增殖以及小鼠肿瘤形成。此外,在人类ESCC标本中,APC表达下调与METTL3表达上调相关,且与ESCC患者的不良预后相关。我们的研究结果揭示了一种机制,即通过METTL3/YTHDF偶联的APC表转录组下调,Wnt/β-连环蛋白通路在ESCC中被上调。