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Omics · study · 2026

RNA exonuclease REXO4 resolves m6A-marked R-loops and suppresses anti-tumor immunity [RNAseq]

Listed in NCBI GEO

Transcription blockage frequently occurs in tumor cells, and aberrant R-loop forming during this process drives genome instability.

Description

However, the regulation of R-loop homeostasis and its dysregulation in tumorigenesis are still under investigation. Here, we report that the RNA exonuclease REXO4 preserves genome stability by reducing excessive R-loops.

Mechanistically, REXO4 resolves R-loops by 3’-5’ exonucleolytic cleavage of the RNA strand on RNA-DNA hybrids, where an accessible end is created by RNA endonuclease and N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification on RNA moieties promotes REXO4 localization and R-loop removal. REXO4 ablation-induced DNA damage stimulates interferon response and tumor immune infiltration to suppress squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) growth and metastasis.

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Importantly, targeting the exonuclease activity of REXO4 via the inhibitor we developed synergizes with PD-1 blockade to inhibit SCC progression by recruiting and activating CD8+ T cells. Thus, our study provides mechanistic insight into how m6A couples with exonuclease in R-loop clearance and genome maintenance, and uncovers a druggable epi-transcriptional machinery that blocks innate immune response and enables SCC immune evasion.

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Life Sciences
Inferred from text
Cancer 65% · RNA sequencing 65%
Provenance · 1 source records, 10 field assertions
SourceKeyLast seenRaw
NCBI GEOGSE28962514 d agoJSON v1
FieldAssertionExtractorEvidence
access_levelsource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0
concepts[disease].local:disease:cancerenrichment · NCBI GEOkeyword-concept-rules@1.0.0title+description (65%)
concepts[field].local:field:life-sciencesmapping · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0
concepts[method].geo_series_type:expression-profiling-by-high-throughput-sequencingsource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/gdstype
concepts[modality].local:modality:rna-seqenrichment · NCBI GEOkeyword-concept-rules@1.0.0title+description (65%)
concepts[organism].NCBITaxon:10090source · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/taxon
concepts[organism].NCBITaxon:9606source · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/taxon
descriptionsource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/summary
publication_datesource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0
titlesource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/title