Protein Methyltransferases in Human Health and Diseases
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2026 | Viewed by 6679
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
A wide variety of methyltransferases add methylations to proteins in key regulatory pathways, which are spatially, temporally, and chemically dynamic. Despite the abundance of these post-translational modifications (PTM) in the human proteome, our understanding of the role of most of these methyltransferase enzymes in cellular biology and disease is still limited. This has a particularly significant impact on cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, where novel treatment strategies are being sought.
Moreover, in relation to the different methyltrasnsferase enzyme families, the degree of methylation adds an extra layer of complexity, since lysine can undergo mono- (Kme1), di- (Kme2), or tri- (Kme3) methylation, while arginine can undergo mono- (Rme1), di-symetrical (sRme2), and di-asymmetrical (aRme2) methylation, and these are sometimes performed by different enzymes at one specific residue. The addition of this PTM leads to some sort of change in protein properties, which consequently, either directly or indirectly, impacts the function via domain activity, interaction strength to target proteins or DNA, localization, and protein stability or half-life. Moreover, methylation can crosstalk or compete with other PTMs, adding another layer of regulation. For this reason, protein methylation is gaining interest for diagnostic and prognostic applications, particularly on lysines and arginines in non-histone proteins. The dysregulation of protein methyltransferases has also been implicated in disease, making such enzymes potential therapeutic targets, for which there are only few inhibiting small molecules that are in clinical trials. However, despite recognizing the importance of methyltransferase enzymes in both cellular biology and human disease, much is still unknown regarding their full complement of target proteins, modified residue positions, degree, and function. The main reasons for this are a lack of reliable tools and methods for studying these modifications.
This Special Issue aims to gather any advances in relation to the protein methyltransferase enzymes. Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Identification of protein methyltransferases as biomarkers in diagnostics or therapeutics;
- Identification of pathways or contexts in which protein methyltransferases are involved;
- Testing of novel protein methyltransferase inhibitors for controlling disease progression.
Dr. Byron Baron
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- lysine and arginine methylation
- mass spectrometry
- PTM cross talk
- functional proteomics
- cancer
- neurological disorders
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