METTL14 modulates glycolysis to inhibit colorectal tumorigenesis in p53-wild-type cells.

The frequency of p53 mutations in colorectal cancer (CRC) is approximately 40-50%. A variety of therapies are being developed to target tumors expressing mutant p53. However, potential therapeutic targets for CRC expressing wild-type p53 are rare. In this study, we show that METTL14 is transcriptionally activated by wild-type p53 and suppresses tumor growth only in p53-wild-type (p53-WT) CRC cells. METTL14 deletion promotes both AOM/DSS and AOM-induced CRC growth in mouse models with the intestinal epithelial cell-specific knockout of METTL14. Additionally, METTL14 restrains aerobic glycolysis in p53-WT CRC, by repressing SLC2A3 and PGAM1 expression via selectively promoting m6 A-YTHDF2-dependent pri-miR-6769b/pri-miR-499a processing. Biosynthetic mature miR-6769b-3p and miR-499a-3p decrease SLC2A3 and PGAM1 levels, respectively, and suppress malignant phenotypes. Clinically, METTL14 only acts as a beneficial prognosis factor for the overall survival of p53-WT CRC patients. These results uncover a new mechanism for METTL14 inactivation in tumors and, most importantly, reveal that the activation of METTL14 is a critical mechanism for p53-dependent cancer growth inhibition, which could be targeted for therapy in p53-WT CRC.