FTO Plays an Oncogenic Role in Acute Myeloid Leukemia as a N6-Methyladenosine RNA Demethylase

Publication date: Available online 22 December 2016
Source:Cancer Cell
Author(s): Zejuan Li, Hengyou Weng, Rui Su, Xiaocheng Weng, Zhixiang Zuo, Chenying Li, Huilin Huang, Sigrid Nachtergaele, Lei Dong, Chao Hu, Xi Qin, Lichun Tang, Yungui Wang, Gia-Ming Hong, Hao Huang, Xiao Wang, Ping Chen, Sandeep Gurbuxani, Stephen Arnovitz, Yuanyuan Li, Shenglai Li, Jennifer Strong, Mary Beth Neilly, Richard A. Larson, Xi Jiang, Pumin Zhang, Jie Jin, Chuan He, Jianjun Chen
N⁶-Methyladenosine (m⁶A) represents the most prevalent internal modification in mammalian mRNAs. Despite its functional importance in various fundamental bioprocesses, the studies of m⁶A in cancer have been limited. Here we show that FTO, as an m⁶A demethylase, plays a critical oncogenic role in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). FTO is highly expressed in AMLs with t(11q23)/MLL rearrangements, t(15;17)/PML-RARA, FLT3-ITD, and/or NPM1 mutations. FTO enhances leukemic oncogene-mediated cell transformation and leukemogenesis, and inhibits all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA)-induced AML cell differentiation, through regulating expression of targets such as ASB2 and RARA by reducing m⁶A levels in these mRNA transcripts. Collectively, our study demonstrates the functional importance of the m⁶A methylation and the corresponding proteins in cancer, and provides profound insights into leukemogenesis and drug response.

Teaser

Li et al. show that FTO, an N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) demethylase, is highly expressed in subtypes of AML, promotes leukemogenesis, and inhibits all-trans-retinoic acid-induced leukemia cell differentiation. FTO exerts its oncogenic role by regulating mRNA targets such as ASB2 and RARA by reducing their m⁶A levels.


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