c-Myc inhibits TP53INP1 expression via promoter methylation in esophageal carcinoma

Research highlights: → TP53INP1 expression is down-regulated in esophageal carcinoma and is associated with CGI-131 methylation. → Inhibition of CGI-131 methylation upregulates TP53INP1 expression in ESCC cell lines. → Ectopic expression of TP53INP1 inhibits growth of ESCC cells by inducing apoptosis and inhibiting cell cycle progression. → c-Myc binds to the promoter of TP53INP1 in vivo and vitro and recruits DNMT3A to TP53INP1 promoter for CGI-131 methylation. -- Abstract: Tumor protein p53-induced nuclear protein 1 (TP53INP1) is a well known stress-induced protein that plays a role in both cell cycle arrest and p53-mediated apoptosis. Loss of TP53INP1 expression has been reported in human melanoma, breast carcinoma, and gastric cancer. However, TP53INP1 expression and its regulatory mechanism in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remain unclear. Our findings are in agreement with previous reports in that the expression of TP53INP1 was downregulated in 28% (10/36 cases) of ESCC lesions, and this was accompanied by significant promoter methylation. Overexpression of TP53INP1 induced G1 cell cycle arrest and increased apoptosis in ESCC cell lines (EC-1, EC-109, EC-9706). Furthermore, our study showed that the oncoprotein c-Myc bound to the core promoter of TP53INP1 and recruited DNA methyltransferase 3A to methylate the local promoter region, leading to the inhibition of TP53INP1 expression. Our findings revealed that TP53INP1 is a tumor suppressor in ESCC and that c-Myc-mediated DNA methylation-associated silencing of TP53INP1 contributed to the pathogenesis of human ESCC.