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-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.