The Precise Medicine Center, Department of Basic Medical College, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang, 110034, China.
School of Pharmacy, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang, 110034, China.
Cell Death Dis. 2022 May 21;13(5):487. doi: 10.1038/s41419-022-04940-4.
Epigenetic alteration is a pivotal factor in tumor metastasis. PHD finger protein 13 (PHF13) is a recently identified epigenetic reader of H3K4me2/3 that functions as a transcriptional co-regulator. In this study, we demonstrate that PHF13 is required for pancreatic-cancer-cell growth and metastasis. Integrative analysis of transcriptome and epigenetic profiles provide further mechanistic insights into the epigenetic regulation of genes associated with cell metastasis during the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) induced by transforming growth factor β (TGFβ). Our data suggest PHF13 depletion impairs activation of TGFβ stimulated genes and correlates with a loss of active epigenetic marks (H3K4me3 and H3K27ac) at these genomic regions. These observations argue for a dependency of TGFβ target activation on PHF13. Furthermore, PHF13-dependent chromatin regions are enriched in broad H3K4me3 domains and super-enhancers, which control genes critical to cancer-cell migration and invasion, such as SNAI1 and SOX9. Overall, our data indicate a functional and mechanistic correlation between PHF13 and EMT.
表观遗传改变是肿瘤转移的关键因素。PHD 手指蛋白 13(PHF13)是最近发现的 H3K4me2/3 的表观遗传阅读器,作为转录共调节剂发挥作用。在这项研究中,我们证明 PHF13 是胰腺癌细胞生长和转移所必需的。转录组和表观遗传谱的综合分析进一步深入了解了转化生长因子β(TGFβ)诱导的上皮-间充质转化(EMT)过程中与细胞转移相关的基因的表观遗传调控。我们的数据表明,PHF13 耗竭会损害 TGFβ 刺激基因的激活,并与这些基因组区域中活性表观遗传标记(H3K4me3 和 H3K27ac)的丢失相关。这些观察结果表明 TGFβ 靶基因的激活依赖于 PHF13。此外,依赖 PHF13 的染色质区域富含广泛的 H3K4me3 结构域和超级增强子,这些区域控制着对癌细胞迁移和侵袭至关重要的基因,如 SNAI1 和 SOX9。总体而言,我们的数据表明 PHF13 与 EMT 之间存在功能和机制相关性。