Chronic Stress-Induced m7G Cap Modification of ADRB2 Dysregulates the Pentose Phosphate Pathway to Promote Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Progression

Abstract

Chronic stress is increasingly recognized as a driver of cancer metabolism, highlighting the need to elucidate the mechanism linking chronic stress to metabolic reprogramming. Here, we performed untargeted metabolomics on serum samples from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients and integrated the results with clinical and stress-related assessments, revealing pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) enrichment accompanied by elevated epinephrine levels in patients with stress-associated features. β2-adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) activated by chronic stress stabilized MYCBP by competitively displacing VHL, thereby enhancing MYC transcriptional activity and upregulating key PPP enzymes, including G6PD and TKT. Unexpectedly, stress-associated stimulation not only activated ADRB2 signaling but also increased ADRB2 protein abundance. Mechanistically, stress exposure enhanced RNMT-dependent N7-methylguanosine (m7G) cap modification of ADRB2 mRNA, thereby increasing its translational efficiency. Together, these findings define an RNMT-ADRB2-MYCBP-PPP axis that integrates epitranscriptomic regulation with adrenergic signaling to promote metabolic reprogramming and malignant progression in ESCC. The stress-associated RNA modification-metabolism circuitry comprises potential therapeutic targets to overcome stress-associated ESCC progression.