Shaikh, Shafiq

Abstract Clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC), which arises from the epithelial cells of the proximal tubule represents 70% of all renal cell carcinoma. Mutations that drive ccRCC in conjunction with near ubiquitous and early VHL loss include, PBRM1 (33 - 45%), BAP1 (15%) and SETD2 (13%). Loss of SETD2 leads to diminished occupancy of H3K36me3 in active gene bodies, which is progressively deregulated in primary RCC and metastasis, linking loss of H3K36me to tumor progression and metastasis. N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) is an important post-transcriptional regulator of RNA transcript stability and half-life. Preliminary findings have shown H3K36me3 (deposited by SETD2), targeting the core m6A methyltransferase machinery (METTL3, METTL14 and WTAP) to the mRNA by virtue of its interaction to METTL14 subunit. The goal of this study is to investigate if H3K36me3 depletion as observed in SETD2 mutant ccRCC, leads to a deregulated m6A methylome. We further investigate how deregulated methylome in key pathways leads to cancer initiation and progression in ccRCC. To accomplish our goals, we generated isogenic ccRCC cell lines with H3K36me3 depletion by knocking out SETD2. RNA-immunoprecipitation and sequencing for m6A (MeRIP) showed global deregulation of m6A methylome in SETD2KO isogenic ccRCC cell lines. We also show a number of pro-tumorigenic genes and pathways including cell invasion, inflammation and stemness being differentially methylated and expressed in SETD2KO ccRCC cell lines. Furthermore, we show SETD2KO cells being more sensitive to METTL3 inhibition suggesting the relevance of m6A hypermethylated transcripts in promoting pro-tumorigenic and growth promoting processes in SETD2KO ccRCC cell lines. Citation Format: Shafiq Shaikh, Ryan Wagner, Ryan Hlady, Keith D. Robertson. Perturbed RNA N6-methyladenosine methylome in SETD2 mutant clear cell renal carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 7074.