PRMT1 methylation of WTAP promotes multiple myeloma tumorigenesis by activating oxidative phosphorylation via m6A modification of NDUFS6 [m6A-Seq]
Epigenetic modifications play important roles during the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma (MM). Here, we found that protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) was highly expressed in MM patients and its expression level was positively correlated with MM stages. High PRMT1 expression were notably related to adverse prognosis in MM patients. We further showed that silencing PRMT1 inhibited MM proliferation and tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, we revealed that knockdown of PRMT1 reduced the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) of MM cells through downregulation of NDUFS6. Meanwhile, we identified that WTAP, a key component of the m6A methyltransferase complex, was methylated by PRMT1 and NDUFS6 was identified as a bona fide m6A target of WTAP. Finally, we found that PRMT1 inhibitor and bortezomib combination synergistically inhibited MM progression. Collectively, our results demonstrate that PRMT1 plays a crucial role during MM tumorigenesis and suggest that PRMT1 could be a potential therapeutic target in MM. Overall design: To identify the functional downstream target genes responsible for the observed phenotype, MM.1S cells knocked down for PRMT1 were used for m6A-Seq analyses.