Targeting Arginine Methylation Suppresses Cancer Stem Cell Maintenance and Elicits cGAS-mediated anti-Cancer Immunity
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ABSTRACT: Current anti-cancer therapies cannot eliminate all the cancer cells, which hijack normal arginine methylation as a means to promote their own maintenance via unknown mechanisms. Herein, we show that targeting protein arginine methyltransferase 9 (PRMT9), whose activities are elevated in leukemia stem cells (LSCs) from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), eliminates disease via cancer-intrinsic mechanisms and cancer-extrinsic Type-I Interferon (IFN-I)-associated immunity. PRMT9 ablation in AML cells decreased arginine methylation of regulators of RNA translation and the DNA damage response, suppressing cell survival. Notably, PRMT9 inhibition promoted DNA damage and activated cGAS, which underlies the IFN-I response. Genetically activating cGAS in AML cells blocked leukemogenesis. We also report synergy of a PRMT9 inhibitor with anti-PD1 in eradicating PRMT9-proficient cancers, including AML and lymphoma. We conclude that PRMT9 governs LSCs survival and immune evasion, and that combining a PRMT9 inhibitor with an immune checkpoint inhibitor represents a novel anti-cancer strategy.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE217396 | GEO | 2023/11/03
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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