Here, we show that PRMT6, a protein arginine methyltransferase responsible for asymmetric dimethylation of histone H3 arginine 2 (H3R2me2a), negatively regulates DNA methylation and that PRMT6 upregulation contributes to global DNA hypomethylation in cancer.
Our results indicate that PRMT6 appears to be one of the key proteins to dysregulate p21 functions in human cancer, and targeting this pathway may be an appropriate strategy for development of anticancer drugs.
PELP1 and PRMT6 are co-recruited to estrogen receptor target genes, PELP1 knockdown affects the enrichment of histone H3R2 di-methylation, and PELP1 and PRMT6 coordinate to regulate the alternative splicing of genes involved in cancer.
Protein arginine methyltransferase-6 (PRMT6) regulates steroid-dependent transcription and alternative splicing and is implicated in endocrine system development and function, cell death, cell cycle, gene expression and cancer.
We conclude that PRMT6 acts as an oncogene in breast cancer cells, promoting growth and preventing senescence, making it an attractive target for cancer therapy.
In summary, our results suggest that dysregulation of PRMT1 and PRMT6 can be involved in human carcinogenesis and that these Type I arginine methyltransferases are good therapeutic targets for various types of cancer.
These findings show that TSP-1 is a transcriptional repression target of PRMT6 and suggest that neutralizing the activity of PRMT6 could inhibit tumor progression and therefore may be of cancer therapeutic significance.