Systematic pan-cancer landscape identifies CARM1 as a potential prognostic and immunological biomarker

Abstract

Background Belonging to the protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) family, the enzyme encoded by coactivator associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (CARM1) catalyzes the methylation of protein arginine residues, especially acts on histones and other chromatin related proteins, which is essential in regulating gene expression. Beyond its well-established involvement in the regulation of transcription, recent studies have revealed a novel role of CARM1 in tumorigenesis and development, but there is still a lack of systematic understanding of CARM1 in human cancers. An integrated analysis of CARM1 in pan-cancer may contribute to further explore its prognostic value and potential immunological function in tumor therapy. Results Based on systematic analysis of data in multiple databases, we firstly verified that CARM1 is highly expressed in most tumors compared with corresponding normal tissues, and is bound up with poor prognosis in some tumors. Subsequently, relevance between CARM1 expression level and tumor immune microenvironment is analyzed from the perspectives of tumor mutation burden, microsatellite instability, mismatch repair genes, methyltransferases genes, immune checkpoint genes and immune cells infiltration, indicating a potential relationship between CARM1 expression and tumor microenvironment. A gene enrichment analysis followed shortly, which implied that the role of CARM1 in tumor pathogenesis may be related to transcriptional imbalance and viral carcinogenesis. Conclusions Our first comprehensive bioinformatics analysis provides a broad molecular perspective on the role of CARM1 in various tumors, highlights its value in clinical prognosis and potential association with tumor immune microenvironment, which may furnish an immune based antitumor strategy to provide a reference for more accurate and personalized immunotherapy in the future.

Arginine methylation of BRD4 by PRMT2/4 governs transcription and DNA repair

“…Given that PRMT2/4 and BRD4 are commonly overexpressed in breast tumors and play a crucial role in breast cancer progression (50)(51)(52), we next investigated whether PRMT2/4-mediated methylation of BRD4 at 3R regulates its oncogenic function using two common breast cancer cell lines, MCF7 and MDA-MB-231, that have been frequently used in PRMT4-and BRD4-relevant studies (52)(53)(54)(55). Short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated knockdown of PRMT2 or PRMT4 alone inhibits cell proliferation and colony formation, while codepletion of PRMT2/4 has an additive effect (Fig.…”

Pan-Cancer Analysis of the Expression and Prognostic Value of S-Phase Kinase-Associated Protein 2

“…The pan-cancer analysis is a comprehensive and systematic approach to investigating and assessing the function and mechanism of a specific gene in tumorigenesis. Using the TCGA database, several genes were identified that may have a role in human cancers, such as FGL1 [30], CARM1 [31], CBX [32], LCK [33], and MNX1 [34]. In the present study, we conducted a systematic analysis of SKP2 expression across a variety of tumor forms, and the results revealed that practically most tumor types overexpressed SKP2 ).…”

H3 histone methylation landscape in male urogenital cancers: from molecular mechanisms to epigenetic biomarkers and therapeutic targets

“…Using bioinformatic tool TIMER2, Qiu and others (2022) highlighted the molecular perspective on the role of CARM1, comparing its expression difference between various cancer types and corresponding normal tissues. In BCa higher expression level of CARM1 was noticed, bringing out its potential value in clinical prognosis ( Qiu et al, 2022 ). PRMT6 knockdown can significantly inhibit the growth of bladder cancer cell lines SW780 and RT4.…”