Genome-wide RNAi Screening Identifies pseudouridine synthase DKC1 promotes CRC proliferation through regulating ribosomal proteins expression

Colorectal cancer (CRC) with high rate of mortality is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in worldwide. Advanced colorectal cancer is often accompanied by malignant proliferation of tumor cells. Further researches on colorectal cancer proliferation to find new targets and develop new therapeutic regimen are an important direction for colorectal cancer treatment. In this study, genome-wide RNAi screening was used to discover the essential genes associated with colorectal cancer cell proliferation. We found DKC1 (dyskerin pseudouridine synthase 1) promoted CRC proliferation through binding and modifying ribosomal proteins (RPL10A, RPL22L1, RPL34, RPS3) mRNA to increase the mRNAs stability and eventually increasing their expression. Besides, DKC1 is highly expressed in colorectal cancer and its aberrantly high expression is associated with poor prognosis of colorectal cancer patients. These results suggest that DKC1 could be a new therapeutic target for colorectal cancer.