CBX7 inhibitors affect H3K9 methyltransferase-regulated gene repression in leukemic cells

•-CBX7 compensates loss of gene repression upon H3K9 methyltransferase inhibition.•-CBX7 inhibition reduces H3K9 methylation levels.•-CBX7 is a therapeutic target in leukemia. The epigenome of leukemic cells is dysregulated, and genes required for cell cycle arrest and differentiation may become repressed, which contributes to the accumulation of undifferentiated malignant blood cells. Here, we show that the Polycomb group protein CBX7 can interact with H3K9 methyltransferases EHMT1/2 and SETDB1. We aimed to assess whether combined interfering with these H3K9 methyltransferases and CBX7 could derepress target genes and thereby induce growth arrest of leukemic cells. We found that pharmacologic inhibition of CBX7 abolishes the interaction of CBX7 with EHMT1/2 and SETDB1 and subsequently reduces H3K9 methylation levels which reactivates target gene expression. Reversely, upon pharmacologic inhibition of H3K9 methyltransferases, CBX7 can take over gene repression. Finally, we found that combined inhibition of CBX7 and EHMT1/2 or SETDB1 had additive effects on reducing cell growth and inducing differentiation. However, we did not detect changes in epigenetic modifications, nor target gene derepression, after combination treatment. In contrast, CBX7 inhibitors alone did affect both Polycomb-associated H2Aub-mediated gene repression as well as H3K9 methyltransferase activity. Therefore, we suggest that CBX7 is a promising therapeutic target in leukemia, as its inhibition can reactivate Polycomb and H3K9 methyltransferase target gene expression.