Selective degradation of PL2L60 by metabolic stresses­induced autophagy suppresses multi­cancer growth.

It has been reported that PL2L60 proteins, a product of PIWIL2 gene which might be activated by an intragenic promoter, could mediate a common pathway specifically for tumorigenesis. In the present study, it was further identified by using western blot assay that the PL2L60 proteins could be degraded in cancer cells through a mechanism of selective autophagy in response to oxidative stress. The PL2L60 was downregulated in various types of cancer cells under the hypoxic condition independently of HIF­1α, resulting in apoptosis of cancer cells. Inhibition of autophagy by small interfering RNA targeting of either Beclin­1 (BECN1) or Atg5 resulted in restoration of PL2L60 expression in hypoxic cancer cell. The hypoxic degradation of PL2L60 was also blocked by the attenuation of the autophagosome membrane protein Atg8/microtubule­associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) or autophagy cargo protein p62 expression. Surprisingly, Immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated that LC3 could be directly bound to PL2L60 and was required for the transport of PL2L60 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm for lysosomal flux under basal or activated autophagy in cancer cells. Moreover, flow cytometric analysis displayed that knocking down of PL2L60 mRNA but not PIWIL2 mRNA effectively inhibited cancer cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis of cancer cells. The similar results were obtained from in vivo tumorigenic experiment, in which PL2L60 downregulation in necroptosis areas was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. These results suggested that various cancer could be suppressed by promoting autophagy. The present study revealed a key role of autophagic degradation of PL2L60 in hypoxia­induced cancer cell death, which could be used as a novel therapeutic target of cancer.

An asymmetrically dimethylarginated nuclear 90 kDa protein (p90aDMA) induced by interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4 or IL-6 in the tumor microenvironment is selectively degraded by autophagy.

Protein arginine methylation is a common posttranslational modification resulting in the generation of asymmetric dimethylarginine (aDMA) and symmetric dimethylarginine (sDMA). Currently, the regulation of aDMA or sDMA by hypoxia, nutrient stavation or cytokines in the tumor microenvironment remains largely unknown. Here we show that p90aDMA, p70aDMA and p90sDMA, endogenous proteins containing aDMA or sDMA with mass 70 or 90 kDa, were widely and dominantly expressed in breast cancer cell lines. Notably, it was p90aDMA rather than p90sDMA that accumulated in the nucleus upon stimulation of cancer cells with interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-6 but not IL-8. In addition, the p90aDMA accumulation could be inhibited after treatment with a global methyltrasferase inhibitor, adenosine-2',3'-dialdehyde (AdOx). It seemed that some endogenous proteins in cancer cells were asymmetrically arginine-methylated upon exposure to some cytokines.. Furthermore, endogenous proteins of aDMA, such as p90aDMA and p70aDMA, were degraded in response to hypoxia, nutrient starvation and rapamycin treatment in breast and cervical cancer cells. IL-2/4/6 slightly increased basal autophagy but slightly decreased the rapamycin­induced autophagy in cancer cells, suggesting that IL-2/4/6 and autophagy inducers play distinct roles in the regulation of aDMA of proteins. Conversely, rapamycin accumulated p90sDMA in MDA-MB­231 and MCF-7 cells. Taken together, our results add a new dimension to the complexity of arginine methylated regulation in response to various stimuli and provide the first evidence that aDMA serves as one specific degradation signal of selective autophagy.