Expression Status and Prognostic Roles of m6A-related Genes in Multiple Myeloma: YTHDF2 as the independent prognostic factor

Abstract

Background: N6-methyladenosine is the most abundant RNA modification, which plays a prominent role in multiple biology processes, including tumorigenesis. Multiple myeloma (MM) is the second most frequent hematological cancer. However, the expression status and value of m6A-related genes in multiple myeloma remain elusive.Methods: m6A-related gene expression data and clinical information of MM patients were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Based on differentially expressed analysis, protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis, the prognostic m6A-associated genes were identified. The receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curves were used to verify the prognostic and diagnostic efficiency. The molecular mechanisms were investigated by differentially expressed mRNA and microRNA analyses with the help of online database ENCORI and POSTAR.Results: Among 22 m6A-related genes, HNRNPC, RBM15B, RBM15, YTHDF3, YTHDF2, HNRNPA2B1 and IGF2BP2 were significantly upregulated, while ZC3H13, FTO, IGF2BP3, ALKBH5 and YTHDC1 were significantly downregulated in MM patients. The high expression of HNRNPC, HNRNPA2B1, YTHDF2 and the low expression of ZC3H13 were associated with adverse survival. Furthermore, the expression level of YTHDF2 was the independent prognostic factor of MM. ROC curves suggested the great prediction performance for MM patients. Differentially expressed mRNA and microRNA analyses indicated the probable involvement of miR-205/YTHDF2/EGR1 axis.Conclusions: Our study first systematically analyzed the expression status of m6A-related genes in multiple myeloma, identified HNRNPC, HNRNPA2B1, YTHDF2 and ZC3H13 that could be the potential prognostic biomarkers, especially YTHDF2, which may be implicated in the miR-205/YTHDF2/EGR1 axis.