Mapping arginine methylation in the human body and cardiac disease

Arginine methylation (ArgMe) is one of the most ubiquitous PTMs, and hundreds of proteins undergo ArgMe in, for example, brain. However, the scope of ArgMe in many tissues, including the heart, is currently underexplored. Here, we aimed to (i) identify proteins undergoing ArgMe in human organs, and (ii) expose the relevance of ArgMe in cardiac disease.

The publicly available proteomic data is used to search for ArgMe in 13 human tissues. To induce H9c2 cardiac-like cell hypertrophy glucose is used.

The results show that ArgMe is mainly tissue-specific; nevertheless, the authors suggest an embryonic origin of core ArgMe events. In the heart, 103 mostly novel ArgMe sites in 58 nonhistone proteins are found. The authors provide compelling evidence that cardiac protein ArgMe is relevant to cardiomyocyte ontology, and important for proper cardiac function. This is highlighted by the fact that genetic mutations affecting methylated arginine positions are often associated with cardiac disease, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The pilot experimental data suggesting significant changes in ArgMe profiles of H9c2 cells upon induction of cell hypertrophy using glucose is provided.

The work calls for in-depth investigation of ArgMe in normal and diseased tissues using methods including clinical proteomics.