N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) in pancreatic cancer: Regulatory mechanisms and future direction

Abstract

N 6 -methyladenosine (m 6 A), the most abundant RNA modification in eukaryotes, plays a pivotal role in regulating many cellular and biological processes. Aberrant m 6 A modification has recently been involved in carcinogenesis in various cancers, including pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. It is a heterogeneous malignant disease characterized by a plethora of diverse genetic and epigenetic events. Increasing evidence suggests that dysregulation of m 6 A regulatory factors, such as methyltransferases, demethylases, and m 6 A-binding proteins, profoundly affects the development and progression of pancreatic cancer. In addition, m 6 A regulators and m 6 A target transcripts may be promising early diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarkers, as well as therapeutic targets. In this review, we highlight the biological functions and mechanisms of m 6 A in pancreatic cancer and discuss the potential of m 6 A modification in clinical applications.

Analysis of N6-Methyladenosine Modification Patterns and Tumor Immune Microenvironment in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that m6A modification was associated with the occurrence and development of PAAD. WTAP could promote tumor metastasis via stabilizing Fak mRNA and would result in a poor prognosis ( Li et al, 2021a ). Meanwhile, Xia et al (2019) revealed that METTL3 promoted tumor cell proliferation and invasion, and could be a treatment target.…”

The Role of m6A RNA Methylation in Cancer: Implication for Nature Products Anti-Cancer Research

“…More recently, extensive efforts have been made to investigate the biological effects of dysregulated m6A modifications and related mechanisms (i.e., m6A writers, erasers, and reader proteins) in various cancers, such as prostate cancer ( Wang et al, 2022 ), colorectal cancer ( Tanabe et al, 2016 ; Zhu et al, 2020b ), gastric cancer ( Xu et al, 2021 ), esophageal cancer ( Guo et al, 2020 ), cervical cancer and endometrial cancer ( Zhang and Yang, 2021 ; Huang et al, 2022 ), pancreatic cancer ( Li et al, 2021 ), skin cancer ( Yang et al, 2021 ), etc. Moreover, METTL16, as an independent regulator, plays an important role in RNA m6A modification.…”

An Overview of Epigenetic Methylation in Pancreatic Cancer Progression

“…Functionally, IGF2BP2 can increase cell proliferation and metabolism in PC by directly binding and stabilizing GLUT1 mRNA ( 101 ). IGF2BPs can also interact with various ncRNAs in order to function in PC progression ( 102 ).…”