FBXO31-mediated ubiquitination of OGT maintains O-GlcNAcylation homeostasis to restrain endometrial malignancy

Abstract Protein O-GlcNAcylation is a post-translational modification coupled to cellular metabolic plasticity. Aberrant O-GlcNAcylation has been observed in many cancers including endometrial cancer (EC), a common malignancy in women. However, clinical characterization of dysregulated O-GlcNAcylati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Na Zhang, Yang Meng, Song Mao, Huiling Ni, Canhua Huang, Licong Shen, Kun Fu, Lu Lv, Chunhong Yu, Piyanat Meekrathok, Chunmei Kuang, Fang Chen, Yu Zhang, Kai Yuan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-02-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56633-z
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract Protein O-GlcNAcylation is a post-translational modification coupled to cellular metabolic plasticity. Aberrant O-GlcNAcylation has been observed in many cancers including endometrial cancer (EC), a common malignancy in women. However, clinical characterization of dysregulated O-GlcNAcylation homeostasis in EC and interrogating its molecular mechanism remain incomplete. Here we report that O-GlcNAcylation level is positively correlated with EC histologic grade in a Chinese cohort containing 219 tumors, validated in The Cancer Genome Atlas dataset. Increasing O-GlcNAcylation in patient-derived endometrial epithelial organoids promotes proliferation and stem-like cell properties, whereas decreasing O-GlcNAcylation limits the growth of endometrial cancer organoids. CRISPR screen and biochemical characterization reveal that tumor suppressor F-box only protein 31 (FBXO31) regulates O-GlcNAcylation homeostasis in EC by ubiquitinating the O-GlcNAc transferase OGT. Downregulation of O-GlcNAcylation impedes EC tumor formation in mouse models. Collectively, our study highlights O-GlcNAcylation as a useful stratification marker and a therapeutic vulnerability for the advanced, poorly differentiated EC cases.
ISSN:2041-1723