Abstract B008: KDM4C histone demethylase connects redox balance to chromatin remodeling via histone H3 tail clipping

Abstract

Abstract Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a breast cancer subtype with inferior prognosis necessitating the discovery of novel therapeutic targets. In this study, we describe that KDM4C, a histone demethylase amplified and overexpressed in a subset of TNBC is a driver of TNBC tumor growth. Integrative multi-omic analysis using RNA-seq, ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq demonstrated that KDM4C inhibition triggers chromatin and transcriptomic remodeling without substantial changes of its canonical substrates H3K9me3 and H3K36me3 in TNBC breast cancer cells. Rather KDM4C loss surprisingly caused proteolytic cleavage at histone 3 N terminus (A21 site) identified by histone mass spectrometry. Protease inhibitor array pointed out cathepsin L (CTSL) as the endopeptidase mediating this procedure and CTSL proteomic interactome profiling further uncovered that grainyhead like transcription factor 2 (GRHL2) recruited CTSL to the chromatin. Metabolomic profiling showed reduced glutathione levels following KDM4C inhibition partly due to a decrease in glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCLC) triggered by CTSL-mediated histone H3 cleavage and subsequent increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS). Knockout of CTSL rescued KDM4C blockade-associated metabolic dysfunction and tumor suppression in vivo. The expression of KDM4C and GCLC correlated in TNBC and combined targeting of KDM4C and the GSH axis improved response to cisplatin in cell culture and xenograft models. Our study reveals a novel role for KDM4C in TNBC that links cellular redox regulation and epigenetics. Citation Format: Zheqi Li, Guillermo Peluffo, Laura Stevens, Xintao Qiu, Marco Seehawer, Xiao-Yun Huang, Shawn Egri, Malvina Papanastasiou, Natalie Kingston, Clive D'Santos, Eva Papachristou, Jun Nishida, Kyle Evans, Ji-Heui Seo, Kendell Clement, Daniel Temko, Muhammad Ekram, Matthew Rees, Melissa Ronan, Jennifer Roth, Anton Simeonov, Stephen Kales, Ganesha Rai, Madhu Lal-Nag, David Maloney, Ajit Jadhav, Franziska Michor, Alex Meissner, Justin Balko, Jason Carroll, Matthew Freedman, Henry Long, Jacob Jaffe, Kornelia Polyak. KDM4C histone demethylase connects redox balance to chromatin remodeling via histone H3 tail clipping [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Advances in Breast Cancer Research; 2023 Oct 19-22; San Diego, California. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(3 Suppl_1):Abstract nr B008.