METTL3-Mediated m6A Modification Regulates the Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 Components BMI1 and RNF2 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells

作者：Weina Chen, Jinqiang Zhang, Wenbo Ma, Nianli Liu, Tong Wu · 发表于：Molecular Cancer Research · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1158/1541-7786.mcr-24-0362 · 被引用次数：16 · 研究领域：RNA modifications and cancer、Cancer-related gene regulation

Methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) is a primary RNA methyltransferase that catalyzes N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification. The current study aims to further delineate the effect and mechanism of METTL3 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). By using a murine model of hepatocellular cancer development induced via hydrodynamic tail vein injection, we showed that METTL3 enhanced HCC development. In cultured human HCC cell lines (Huh7 and PLC/PRF/5), we observed that stable knockdown of METTL3 by short hairpin RNA significantly decreased tumor cell proliferation, colony formation, and invasion, in vitro. When Huh7 and PLC/PRF/5 cells with short hairpin RNA knockdown of METTL3 were inoculated into the livers of SCID mice, we found that METTL3 knockdown significantly inhibited the growth of HCC xenograft tumors. These findings establish METTL3 as an important oncogene in HCC. Through m6A sequencing, RNA sequencing, and subsequent validation studies, we identified BMI1 and RNF2, two key components of the polycomb repressive complex 1, as direct downstream targets of METTL3-mediated m6A modification in HCC cells. Our data indicated that METTL3 catalyzed m6A modification of BMI1 and RNF2 mRNAs which led to increased mRNA stability via the m6A reader proteins IGF2BP1/2/3. Furthermore, we showed that the METTL3 inhibitor, STM2457, significantly inhibited HCC cell growth in vitro and in mice. Collectively, this study provides novel evidence that METTL3 promotes HCC development and progressio...