Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the most lethal types of cancer, and novel treatment regimens are direly needed. Epigenetic regulation contributes to the development of various cancer types, but its role in the development of, and potential as a therapeutic target for, PDAC remains underexplored. Here, we show that PRMT1 is highly expressed in murine and human pancreatic cancer and is essential for cancer cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. Deletion of PRMT1 delays pancreatic cancer development in a KRAS-dependent mouse model, and multi-omics analyses reveal that the PRMT1 depletion leads to global changes in chromatin accessibility and transcription, resulting in reduced glycolysis and a decrease in tumorigenic capacity. Pharmacological inhibition of PRMT1 in combination with gemcitabine has a synergistic effect on pancreatic tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our findings implicate PRMT1 as a key regulator of pancreatic cancer development and a promising target for combination therapy.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the most lethal types of cancer, and novel treatment regimens are direly needed. Epigenetic regulation contributes to the development of various cancer types, but its role in the development of, and potential as a therapeutic target for, PDAC remains underexplored. Here, we show that PRMT1 is highly expressed in murine and human pancreatic cancer and is essential for cancer cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. Deletion of PRMT1 delays pancreatic cancer development in a KRAS-dependent mouse model, and multi-omics analyses reveal that the PRMT1 depletion leads to global changes in chromatin accessibility and transcription, resulting in reduced glycolysis and a decrease in tumorigenic capacity. Pharmacological inhibition of PRMT1 in combination with gemcitabine has a synergistic effect on pancreatic tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our findings implicate PRMT1 as a key regulator of pancreatic cancer development and a promising target for combination therapy.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the most lethal types of cancer, and novel treatment regimens are direly needed. Epigenetic regulation contributes to the development of various cancer types, but its role in the development of, and potential as a therapeutic target for, PDAC remains underexplored. Here, we show that PRMT1 is highly expressed in murine and human pancreatic cancer and is essential for cancer cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. Deletion of PRMT1 delays pancreatic cancer development in a KRAS-dependent mouse model, and multi-omics analyses reveal that the PRMT1 depletion leads to global changes in chromatin accessibility and transcription, resulting in reduced glycolysis and a decrease in tumorigenic capacity. Pharmacological inhibition of PRMT1 in combination with gemcitabine has a synergistic effect on pancreatic tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our findings implicate PRMT1 as a key regulator of pancreatic cancer development and a promising target for combination therapy.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the most lethal types of cancer, and novel treatment regimens are direly needed. Epigenetic regulation contributes to the development of various cancer types, but its role in the development of, and potential as a therapeutic target for, PDAC remains underexplored. Here, we show that PRMT1 is highly expressed in murine and human pancreatic cancer and is essential for cancer cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. Deletion of PRMT1 delays pancreatic cancer development in a KRAS-dependent mouse model, and multi-omics analyses reveal that the PRMT1 depletion leads to global changes in chromatin accessibility and transcription, resulting in reduced glycolysis and a decrease in tumorigenic capacity. Pharmacological inhibition of PRMT1 in combination with gemcitabine has a synergistic effect on pancreatic tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our findings implicate PRMT1 as a key regulator of pancreatic cancer development and a promising target for combination therapy.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the most lethal types of cancer, and novel treatment regimens are direly needed. Epigenetic regulation contributes to the development of various cancer types, but its role in the development of and potential as a therapeutic target for PDAC remains underexplored. Here, we show that PRMT1 is highly expressed in murine and human pancreatic cancer and is essential for cancer cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. Deletion of PRMT1 delays pancreatic cancer development in a KRAS-dependent mouse model, and multi-omics analyses reveal that PRMT1 depletion leads to global changes in chromatin accessibility and transcription, resulting in reduced glycolysis and a decrease in tumorigenic capacity. Pharmacological inhibition of PRMT1 in combination with gemcitabine has a synergistic effect on pancreatic tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our findings implicate PRMT1 as a key regulator of pancreatic cancer development and a promising target for combination therapy.
Project description:Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is associated with extremely poor prognosis due to late diagnosis and therapeutic resistance. Here we show that PDAC cells undergo progressive reprogramming of the global epigenetic landscape during the process of acquiring chemoresistance. Through an epigenetic inhibitor screen, we identified Protein Arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) as a central driver of chemoresistance in PDAC. Genetic or pharmacological inhibition of PRMT1 impaired adaptive epigenetic reprogramming, sensitized PDAC cells to Gemcitabine and other commonly used chemo drugs, and delayed the development of acquired resistance both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, we find that PRMT1, through its enzymatic activity, limits the accumulation of small bZIP transcription factor MAFF in the nucleus, and the assembly of chromatin-bound MAFF/BACH1 hetero-oligomeric complexes following Gemcitabine treatment. Genetic silencing of MAFF heightened the resistance of PDAC cells to Gemcitabine, and to combination of Gemcitabine and PRMT1 inhibitors. Cut&Tag chromatin profiling of H3K27Ac, MAFF and BACH1 suggests a pivotal role for MAFF/BACH1 in orchestrating global epigenetic reprogramming during the course of acquiring Gemcitabine resistance. Supporting the clinical relevance of our findings, predicted PRMT1 and MAFF/BACH1 genes signatures based on our Cut&Tag analysis were able to distinguish Gemcitabine-resistant from Gemcitabine-sensitive PDAC patient-derived xenografts according to expression changes induced by Gemcitabine. Together, our study reveals a novel epigenetic regulatory axis involving PRMT1 and MAFF/BACH1 that modulates Gemcitabine response, which could be potentially exploited for improving therapeutic response in advanced PDAC.