Scientists at the University of California (UC) San Diego School of Medicine report (Hyper-Editing of Cell-Cycle Regulatory and Tumor Suppressor RNA Promotes Malignant Progenitor Propagation) in Cancer Cell that detection of copy editing by stem cell enzyme ADAR1, which is active in more than 20 tumor types, may provide a kind of molecular radar for early detection of malignancies and represent a new therapeutic target for preventing cancer cell resistance to chemotherapy and radiation.
Adenosine deaminases are a family of three enzymes encoded by the ADAR genes, which stand for adenosine deaminase acting on RNA. They regulate gene expression by modifying nucleotides within double-stranded RNA molecules, serving as fundamental editors in the development of new stem cells.
The enzyme, however, is also activated in cancers as diverse as liver, breast, and leukemia. A research team led by senior author Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD, deputy director of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center and deputy director of the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, found that the normal functions of the ADAR1 enzyme are hijacked by pre-malignant cells, leading to a cascade of molecular consequences that promote malignant transformation, dormant cancer stem cell generation, and resistance to treatment.
“Adenosine deaminase associated with RNA1 (ADAR1) deregulation contributes to therapeutic resistance in many malignancies. Here we show that ADAR1-induced hyper-editing in normal human hematopoietic progenitors impairs miR-26a maturation, which represses CDKN1A expression indirectly via EZH2, thereby accelerating cell-cycle transit. However, in blast crisis chronic myeloid leukemia progenitors, loss of EZH2 expression and increased CDKN1A oppose cell-cycle transit,” write the investigators.
“Moreover, A-to-I editing of both the MDM2 regulatory microRNA and its binding site within the 3′ UTR region stabilizes MDM2 transcripts, thereby enhancing blast crisis progenitor propagation. These data reveal a dual mechanism governing malignant transformation of progenitors that is predicated on hyper-editing of cell-cycle-regulatory miRNAs and the 3′ UTR binding site of tumor suppressor miRNAs.”
“We were able to illuminate the abilities of ADAR1 to ‘hyper-mutate’ tumor suppressor RNAs in leukemia and, at the same time, edit the microRNA aimed at targeting the tumor suppressor RNA. This enzyme turns on cancer resistance via a domino effect on RNA instead of DNA,” said first author Qingfei Jiang, PhD, assistant project scientist in Jamieson’s lab.
Jamieson characterized RNA editing as tweaking basic genetic blueprints, not fundamentally rewriting them. Nonetheless, the results might be dramatic.
“One result of detection of malignant RNA editing could be exposing dormant cancer stem cells that often escape therapies that target dividing cells, which leads to therapeutic resistance and disease relapse, and also highlight ADAR as a potentially tractable target for cancer stem cell elimination,” said Jamieson.
