PRMT8 demonstrates variant-specific expression in cancer cells and correlates with patient survival in breast, ovarian and gastric cancer.

Recent emphasis has been placed on the role of epigenetic regulators and epigenetic marks as biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis, and as therapeutic targets for treatment. One such class of regulators is the protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) family. The present study examined available curated data regarding the expression and alteration of one of the least studied PRMT family members, PRMT8, in various types of cancer and cancer cell lines. Publicly available cancer data on PRMT8 expression were examined using the Human Protein Atlas and the Kaplan-Meier Plotter, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used to screen a selection of human cell lines for variant-specific PRMT8 expression. High levels of PRMT8 expression in breast, ovarian and cervical cancer was observed. Additionally, in patients with breast and ovarian cancer, high PRMT8 expression was correlated with increased patient survival, whereas in gastric cancer, high PRMT8 expression was correlated with decreased patient survival. The present study also investigated the expression of PRMT8 variant 2, a novel transcript variant recently identified in our laboratory, in various cancer cell lines. Variant-specific expression of PRMT8 in numerous distinct cancer cell lines derived from different tissues, including the expression of the novel PRMT8 variant 2 in U87MG glioblastoma cells was demonstrated. The present study proposes the possibility of PRMT8 as a cancer biomarker, based on the high level of PRMT8 expression in various types of cancer, particularly in tissues that would not normally be expected to express PRMT8, and on the correlation of PRMT8 and patient lifespan in several cancer types. Variant-specific expression of PRMT8 in diverse cancer cell lines suggests the possibility of alternate PRMT8 isoforms to have diverse effects on cancer cell phenotypes.