Histone MARylation regulates lipid metabolism in colorectal cancer by promoting IGFBP1 methylation

In the global health community, colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major concern, with a high rate of incidence. Mono-ADP-ribosylation (MARylation) is a type of epigenetics and recognized as one of the causes of CRC development and progression. Although the modification level and target proteins in CRC remain unclear, it has been found that MARylation of arginine-117 of histone 3 (H3R117) promotes the proliferation, upregulates methylation of tumor suppressor gene, and is tightly associated with the metabolic processes in LoVo cells. Lipid metabolism disorder is involved in the development of CRC at the early stage. Our study revealed that MARylation of H3R117 of the LoVo cells modulated lipid metabolism, increased cholesterol synthesis, promoted lipid raft (LR) protein IGF-1R distribution, and inhibited cell apoptosis through IGFBP1. In addition, bioinformatics analyses revealed that IGFBP1 promoter was hypermethylated in CRC when compared to that in normal tissues. Moreover, H3R117 MARylation upregulated the methylation of IGFBP1 promoter through histone H3 citrullination (H3cit) by increasing the H3K9me2, heterochromatin protein1 (HP1), and DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) enrichment of IGFBP1 promoter. Accordingly, IGFBP1 may function as a tumor suppressor gene, while H3R117 MARylation may promote CRC development. Our study findings enrich the available data on epigenetics of CRC and provide a new idea and experimental basis for H3R117 MARylation as a target in CRC treatment.