bims-rimeca Biomed News
on RNA methylation in cancer
Issue of 2021–01–03
fourteen papers selected by
Sk Ramiz Islam, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
  1. Expression and Prognostic Characteristics of m6 A RNA Methylation Regulators in Breast Cancer.
  2. Analysis of N6-Methyladenosine Methyltransferase Reveals METTL14 and ZC3H13 as Tumor Suppressor Genes in Breast Cancer.
  3. Identification and Validation of the N6-Methyladenosine RNA Methylation Regulator YTHDF1 as a Novel Prognostic Marker and Potential Target for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
  4. meCLICK-Seq, a Substrate-Hijacking and RNA Degradation Strategy for the Study of RNA Methylation.
  5. Emerging roles of RNA methylation in gastrointestinal cancers.
  6. ALKBH5 Inhibited Cell Proliferation and Sensitized Bladder Cancer Cells to Cisplatin by m6A-CK2α-Mediated Glycolysis.
  7. METTL14 Inhibits Hepatocellular Carcinoma Metastasis Through Regulating EGFR/PI3K/AKT Signaling Pathway in an m6A-Dependent Manner.
  8. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methyltransferase WTAP accelerates the Warburg effect of gastric cancer through regulating HK2 stability.
  9. The Potential Role of N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) Demethylase Fat Mass and Obesity-Associated Gene (FTO) in Human Cancers.
  10. miR-338-5p inhibits cell growth and migration via inhibition of the METTL3/m6A/c-Myc pathway in lung cancer.
  11. Aberrations of m6A regulators are associated with tumorigenesis and metastasis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
  12. The m6A RNA Demethylase ALKBH5 Promotes Radioresistance and Invasion Capability of Glioma Stem Cells.
  13. A mark of disease: how mRNA modifications shape genetic and acquired pathologies.
  14. A Prognostic Molecular Signature of N⁶-Methyladenosine Methylation Regulators for Soft-Tissue Sarcoma from The Cancer Genome Atlas Database.
  1. Front Genet. 2020 ;11 604597
    Expression and Prognostic Characteristics of m6 A RNA Methylation Regulators in Breast Cancer.
    Bo Zhang, Yanlin Gu, Guoqin Jiang.
       Purpose: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent modification in mRNA methylation which has a wide effect on biological functions. This study aims to figure out the efficacy of m6A RNA methylation regulator-based biomarkers with prognostic significance in breast cancer.
    Patients and Methods: The 23 RNA methylation regulators were firstly analyzed through ONCOMINE, then relative RNA-seq transcriptome and clinical data of 1,096 breast cancer samples and 112 normal tissue samples were acquired from The Cancer Gene Atlas (TCGA) database. The expressive distinction was also showed by the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The gene expression data of m6A RNA regulators in human tissues were acquired from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) database. The R v3.5.1 and other online tools such as STRING, bc-GeneExminer v4.5, Kaplan-Meier Plotter were applied for bioinformatics analysis.
    Results: Results from ONCOMINE, TCGA, and GEO databases showed distinctive expression and clinical correlations of m6A RNA methylation regulators in breast cancer patients. The high expression of YTHDF3, ZC3H13, LRPPRC, and METTL16 indicated poor survival rate in patients with breast cancer, while high expression of RBM15B pointed to a better survival rate. Both univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that age and risk scores were related to overall survival (OS). Univariate analysis also delineated that stage, tumor (T) status, lymph node (N) status, and metastasis (M) status were associated with OS. From another perspective, Kaplan-Meier Plotter platform showed that the relatively high expression of YTHDF3 and LRPPRC and the relatively low expression of RBM15B, ZC3H13, and METTL16 in breast cancer patients had worse Relapse-Free Survival (RFS). Breast Cancer Gene-Expression Miner v4.5 showed that LRPPRC level was negatively associated with ER and PR expression, while METTL16, RBM15B, ZC3H13 level was positively linked with ER and PR expression. In HER-2 (+) breast cancer patients, the expression of LRPPRC, METTL16, RBM15B, and ZC3H13 were all lower than the HER-2 (-) group.
    Conclusion: The significant difference in expression levels and prognostic value of m6A RNA methylation regulators were analyzed and validated in this study. This signature revealed the potential therapeutic value of m6A RNA methylation regulators in breast cancer.
    Keywords:  N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation; bioinformatics analysis; breast carcinoma; post-transcriptional modification; prognosis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.604597
  2. Front Oncol. 2020 ;10 578963
    Analysis of N6-Methyladenosine Methyltransferase Reveals METTL14 and ZC3H13 as Tumor Suppressor Genes in Breast Cancer.
    Peng-Ju Gong, You-Cheng Shao, Yan Yang, Wen-Jing Song, Xin He, Yi-Fan Zeng, Si-Rui Huang, Lei Wei, Jing-Wei Zhang.
       Objectives: Recently, an increasing number of studies have revealed that N6-methyladenosine (m6A) functions as a significant post-transcriptional modification which plays a critical role in the occurrence and progression of enriched tumors by regulating coding and non-coding RNA biogenesis. However, the biological function of m6A in breast cancer remains largely unclear.
    Materials and Methods: In this study, we used a series of bioinformatic databases and tools to jointly analyze the expression of m6A methylation transferases (METTL3, METTL14, WTAP, RBM15, RBM15B and ZC3H13) and investigate the prognostic value of METTL14 and ZC3H13 in breast cancer. Besides, we analyzed the downstream carcinogenic molecular mechanisms related to METTL14 and ZC3H13 and their relationship with immune infiltration in breast tumor tissues.
    Results: The results showed that METTL14 and ZC3H13 were the down-regulated m6A methylation transferases in breast cancer. Survival outcome analysis suggested that abnormally low expression of METTL14 and ZC3H13 could predict unfavorable prognosis in four breast cancer subtypes. Moreover, their down-regulation was associated with ER-, PR- and triple-negative breast cancer patients, as well as tumor progression (increased Scarff, Bloom and Richardson grade status and Nottingham Prognostic Index classification). Co-expression analysis revealed that METTL14 and ZC3H13 had a strong positive correlation with APC, an antagonist of the Wnt signaling pathway, indicating they might cooperate in regulating proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of tumor cells. METTL14, ZC3H13, and APC expression levels had significant positive correlation with infiltrating levels of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells, and negative correlation with Treg cells in breast cancer.
    Conclusions: This study demonstrated that down-regulation of METTL14 and ZC3H13 which act as two tumor suppressor genes was found in breast cancer and predicted poor prognosis. Their abnormal expression promoted breast cancer invasion by affecting pathways related to tumor progression and mediating immunosuppression.
    Keywords:  APC; METTL14; Wnt signaling pathway; ZC3H13; breast cancer; m6A; prognosis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2020.578963
  3. Front Mol Biosci. 2020 ;7 604766
    Identification and Validation of the N6-Methyladenosine RNA Methylation Regulator YTHDF1 as a Novel Prognostic Marker and Potential Target for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
    Saiyan Bian, Wenkai Ni, Mengqi Zhu, Qianqian Song, Jianping Zhang, Runzhou Ni, Wenjie Zheng.
      Purpose: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation has been implicated in various malignancies. This study aimed to identify the m6A methylation regulator-based prognostic signature for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as well as provide candidate targets for HCC treatment. Methods: The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analyses were performed to identify a risk signature in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) datasets. The risk signature was further validated in International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) datasets. Following transfection of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting YTHDF1, the biological activities of HCC cells were evaluated by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), wound-healing, Transwell, flow cytometry, and xenograft tumor assays, respectively. The potential mechanisms mediated by YTHDF1 were predicted by overrepresentation enrichment analysis (ORA)/gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and validated by Western blotting. Results: Overexpression of m6A RNA methylation regulators was correlated with malignant clinicopathological characteristics of HCC patients. The Cox regression and LASSO analyses identified a risk signature with five m6A methylation regulators (KIAA1429, ZC3H13, YTHDF1, YTHDF2, and METTL3). In accordance with HCC cases in TCGA, the prognostic value of risk signature was also determined in ICGC and PCAWG datasets. Following analyzing the expression and clinical implications in TCGA and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), YTHDF1 was chosen for further experimental validation. Knockdown of YTHDF1 significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells, as well as enhanced the apoptosis in vitro. Moreover, silencing YTHDF1 repressed the growth of xenograft tumors in vivo. Mechanism investigation indicated that YTHDF1 might promote the aggressive phenotypes by facilitating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and activating AKT/glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3β/β-catenin signaling. Conclusion: The current study identified a robust risk signature consisting of m6A RNA methylation regulators for HCC prognosis. In addition, YTHDF1 was a potential molecular target for HCC treatment.
    Keywords:  YTHDF1; hepatocellular carcinoma; m6A methylation; molecular target; prognosis; regulators
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2020.604766
  4. ACS Cent Sci. 2020 Dec 23. 6(12): 2196-2208
    meCLICK-Seq, a Substrate-Hijacking and RNA Degradation Strategy for the Study of RNA Methylation.
    Sigitas Mikutis, Muxin Gu, Erdem Sendinc, Madoka E Hazemi, Hannah Kiely-Collins, Demetrios Aspris, George S Vassiliou, Yang Shi, Konstantinos Tzelepis, Gonçalo J L Bernardes.
      The fates of RNA species in a cell are controlled by ribonucleases, which degrade them by exploiting the universal structural 2'-OH group. This phenomenon plays a key role in numerous transformative technologies, for example, RNA interference and CRISPR/Cas13-based RNA editing systems. These approaches, however, are genetic or oligomer-based and so have inherent limitations. This has led to interest in the development of small molecules capable of degrading nucleic acids in a targeted manner. Here we describe click-degraders, small molecules that can be covalently attached to RNA species through click-chemistry and can degrade them, that are akin to ribonucleases. By using these molecules, we have developed the meCLICK-Seq (methylation CLICK-degradation Sequencing) a method to identify RNA modification substrates with high resolution at intronic and intergenic regions. The method hijacks RNA methyltransferase activity to introduce an alkyne, instead of a methyl, moiety on RNA. Subsequent copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction with the click-degrader leads to RNA cleavage and degradation exploiting a mechanism used by endogenous ribonucleases. Focusing on N6-methyladenosine (m6A), meCLICK-Seq identifies methylated transcripts, determines RNA methylase specificity, and reliably maps modification sites in intronic and intergenic regions. Importantly, we show that METTL16 deposits m6A to intronic polyadenylation (IPA) sites, which suggests a potential role for METTL16 in IPA and, in turn, splicing. Unlike other methods, the readout of meCLICK-Seq is depletion, not enrichment, of modified RNA species, which allows a comprehensive and dynamic study of RNA modifications throughout the transcriptome, including regions of low abundance. The click-degraders are highly modular and so may be exploited to study any RNA modification and design new technologies that rely on RNA degradation.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.0c01094
  5. Cancer Cell Int. 2020 Dec 07. 20(1): 585
    Emerging roles of RNA methylation in gastrointestinal cancers.
    Shanshan Xie, Wenwen Chen, Kanghua Chen, Yongxia Chang, Feng Yang, Aifu Lin, Qiang Shu, Tianhua Zhou, Xiaoyi Yan.
      RNA methylation has emerged as a fundamental process in epigenetic regulation. Accumulating evidences indicate that RNA methylation is essential for many biological functions, and its dysregulation is associated with human cancer progression, particularly in gastrointestinal cancers. RNA methylation has a variety of biological properties, including N6-methyladenosine (m6A), 2-O-dimethyladenosine (m6Am), N1-methyladenosine (m1A), 5-methylcytosine (m5C) and 7-methyl guanosine (m7G). Dynamic and reversible methylation on RNA is mediated by RNA modifying proteins called "writers" (methyltransferases) and "erasers" (demethylases). "Readers" (modified RNA binding proteins) recognize and bind to RNA methylation sites, which influence the splicing, stability or translation of modified RNAs. Herein, we summarize the biological functions and mechanisms of these well-known RNA methylations, especially focusing on the roles of m6A in gastrointestinal cancer development.
    Keywords:  Gastrointestinal cancers; RNA methylation; m1A; m5C; m6A; m6Am
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12935-020-01679-w
  6. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2021 Mar 05. 23 27-41
    ALKBH5 Inhibited Cell Proliferation and Sensitized Bladder Cancer Cells to Cisplatin by m6A-CK2α-Mediated Glycolysis.
    Hao Yu, Xiao Yang, Jinyuan Tang, Shuhui Si, Zijian Zhou, Jiancheng Lu, Jie Han, Baorui Yuan, Qikai Wu, Qiang Lu, Haiwei Yang.
      N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most commonly occurring internal RNA modification to be found in eukaryotic mRNA and serves an important role in various physiological events. AlkB homolog 5 RNA demethylase (ALKBH5), an m6A demethylase, belongs to the AlkB family of dioxygenases and has been shown to specifically demethylate m6A in RNA, which is associated with a variety of tumors. However, its function in bladder cancer remains largely unclear. In the present study, we found that the expression of ALKBH5 was downregulated in bladder cancer tissues and cell lines. Low expression of ALKBH5 was correlated with the worse prognosis of bladder cancer patients. Furthermore, functional assays revealed that knockdown of ALKBH5 promoted bladder cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and decreased cisplatin chemosensitivity in the 5637 and T24 bladder cancer cell lines in vivo and in vitro, whereas ALKBH5 overexpression led to the opposite results. Finally, ALKBH5 inhibited the progression and sensitized bladder cancer cells to cisplatin through a casein kinase 2 (CK2)α-mediated glycolysis pathway in an m6A-dependent manner. Taken together, these findings might provide fresh insights into bladder cancer therapy.
    Keywords:  ALKBH5; bladder cancer; cisplatin; glycolysis; m6A; protein kinase CK2α
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omtn.2020.10.031
  7. Cancer Manag Res. 2020 ;12 13173-13184
    METTL14 Inhibits Hepatocellular Carcinoma Metastasis Through Regulating EGFR/PI3K/AKT Signaling Pathway in an m6A-Dependent Manner.
    Yuntao Shi, Yingying Zhuang, Jialing Zhang, Mengxue Chen, Shangnong Wu.
       Purpose: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks as the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation is the most common modification of messenger RNAs (mRNAs). The prognosis of HCC patients with metastasis remains poor. Our study aimed to elucidate the regulatory role of m6A on HCC metastasis.
    Patients and Methods: All HCC patients were enrolled from The Affiliated Huai'an No. 1 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. The expression levels of gene were tested by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), Western blot, or immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis. Wound healing assay, Transwell invasion assay, and lung metastasis model were implemented to investigate the migration and invasion ability of HCC cells. Candidate targets were selected by a comprehensive analysis of RNA-sequencing and m6A-sequencing of HepG2 cells.
    Results: In this study, we demonstrated that METTL14 was significantly downregulated in HCC and significantly associated with the prognosis of HCC patients. METTL14 knockdown promoted the migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition, overlapping RNA-sequencing and m6A-sequencing data, we identified EGFR as a direct target of METTL14 in HCC. Mechanistically, METTL14 was found to inhibit HCC cell migration, invasion, and EMT through modulating EGFR/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in an m6A-dependent manner.
    Conclusion: Targeting METTL14/EGFR/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway may facilitate the development of a new treatment strategy against the metastasis of HCC.
    Keywords:  EGFR; METTL14; N6-methyladenosine; hepatocellular carcinoma
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2147/CMAR.S286275
  8. Biomed Pharmacother. 2021 Jan;pii: S0753-3322(20)31268-3. [Epub ahead of print]133 111075
    N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methyltransferase WTAP accelerates the Warburg effect of gastric cancer through regulating HK2 stability.
    Han Yu, Kun Zhao, Haijing Zeng, Zhiwang Li, Kai Chen, Zhuoxin Zhang, En Li, Zuguang Wu.
      N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is one of the most abundant messenger RNAs modification. Increasing evidence illustrates its critical role on gastric cancer. Here, present research focuses on the potential function of m6A methyltransferase Wilms' tumour 1-associated protein (WTAP) in gastric cancer tumorigenesis. Firstly, m6A immunoprecipitation sequencing analysis (MeRIP-Seq) analysis demonstrated the m6A profile in gastric cancer cells. Both WTAP and the m6A expression were up-regulated in gastric cancer tissue and cells. The high-expression of WTAP was closely correlated with poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients. Functional experiments illustrated that WTAP promoted the proliferation and glycolytic capacity (glucose uptake, lactate production and extracellular acidification rate) in vitro, and the knockdown of WTAP suppressed the tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, HK2 was identified to be the target of WTAP using MeRIP-Seq and MeRIP-qPCR. WTAP enhanced the stability of HK2 mRNA through binding with the 3'-UTR m6A site. In conclusion, our results demonstrate the oncogenic role of WTAP and its m6A-mediated regulation on gastric cancer Warburg effect, providing a novel approach and therapeutic target in gastric cancer.
    Keywords:  Gastric cancer; N(6)-methyladenosine; WTAP; Warburg effect
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2020.111075
  9. Onco Targets Ther. 2020 ;13 12845-12856
    The Potential Role of N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) Demethylase Fat Mass and Obesity-Associated Gene (FTO) in Human Cancers.
    Jin-Yan Wang, Li-Juan Chen, Ping Qiang.
      N6-methyladenosine (m6A) demethylase fat mass and obesity-associated gene(FTO), previously recognized to be related with obesity and diabetes, was gradually discovered to be dysregulated in multiple cancers and plays an oncogenic or tumor-suppressive role. However, the specific expression and pro- or anti-cancer role of FTO in various cancers remained controversial. In this review, through summarizing the available literature, we found that FTO single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were closely related with cancer risk. Additionally, the dysregulation of FTO was implicated in multiple biological processes, such as cancer cell apoptosis, proliferation, migration, invasion, metastasis, cell-cycle, differentiation, stem cell self-renewal and so on. These modulations mostly relied on the communications between FTO and specific signaling pathways, including PI3K/AKT, MAPK and mTOR signaling pathways. Furthermore, FTO had great potential for clinical application by serving as a prognostic biomarker.
    Keywords:  FTO; biological function; cancers; prognosis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S283417
  10. Acta Biochim Biophys Sin (Shanghai). 2020 Dec 23. pii: gmaa170. [Epub ahead of print]
    miR-338-5p inhibits cell growth and migration via inhibition of the METTL3/m6A/c-Myc pathway in lung cancer.
    Hongyu Wu, Fangjuan Li, Ren Zhu.
      Lung cancer is a common type of cancer that causes a very large public health burden worldwide. Achieving a better understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the progression of lung cancer is of benefit for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of lung cancer. Here, we first identified dramatically decreased expression of miR-338-5p in lung cancer tissues and cells using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis. We then revealed that miR-338-5p inhibited the cell growth and migration of lung cancer cells using cell counting kit 8 (CCK8), EdU, and Transwell analysis. Furthermore, we demonstrated that miR-338-5p inhibited METTL3 expression by qPCR, western blot analysis, and luciferase reporter assay, while upregulation of METTL3 alleviated the role of miR-338-5p in lung cancer cells. We also showed that METTL3 promoted c-Myc expression by increasing the m6A modification of c-Myc, and overexpression of c-Myc restored the inhibition of cell growth and migration of lung cancer cells induced by METTL3 silencing. Ultimately, this research illustrated that modification of the miR-338-5p/METTL3/c-Myc pathway affected cellular progression in lung cancer cells. Collectively, our study revealed the underlying mechanism of miR-338-5p in lung cancer, providing a novel regulatory pathway in lung cancer. There is potential for this pathway to serve as a diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic biomarker for lung cancer.
    Keywords:  METTL3; RNA m6A modification; c-Myc; lung cancer; miR-338-5p
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/abbs/gmaa170
  11. Arch Oral Biol. 2020 Dec 28. pii: S0003-9969(20)30408-8. [Epub ahead of print]122 105030
    Aberrations of m6A regulators are associated with tumorigenesis and metastasis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
    Paramasivam Arumugam, Rinku George, Vijayashree Priyadharsini Jayaseelan.
       OBJECTIVE: N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) is the most common RNA modification in eukaryotic mRNAs and growing evidence suggests that m6A modification and its regulators play crucial roles in human cancers. However, the role of m6A regulators and their molecular mechanisms in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains largely unclear.
    METHODS: We therefore assessed m6A regulatory genes alterations and their mRNAs expression in HNSCC using openly available data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Further, we have validated the expression level of m6A regulatory gene in HNSCC tissue samples using real-time PCR. In addition, we also analyzed the protein interaction network, and functional enrichment of m6A regulatory genes.
    RESULTS: Analysis of TCGA data revealed that m6A regulatory genes were altered in many HNSCC patients. Importantly, we found for the first time that m6A "writer" KIAA1429 (VIRMA) was frequently amplified and mutated (8 %), which contributes to the overexpression of KIAA1429 mRNA, and the overexpression of KIAA1429 could be remarkably related to cancer stages, tumor grade, and nodal metastasis (P < 0.05). In addition, the overexpression of KIAA1429 was successfully validated using HNSCC tissue samples.
    CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the genetic alterations of m6A regulatory genes are associated with tumorigenesis and metastasis in HNSCC, which may provide clues to identify new therapeutic targets for HNSCC.
    Keywords:  HNSCC; TCGA data; m6A modification; m6A regulators
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archoralbio.2020.105030
  12. Cancers (Basel). 2020 Dec 25. pii: E40. [Epub ahead of print]13(1):
    The m6A RNA Demethylase ALKBH5 Promotes Radioresistance and Invasion Capability of Glioma Stem Cells.
    Aline Kowalski-Chauvel, Marie Géraldine Lacore, Florent Arnauduc, Caroline Delmas, Christine Toulas, Elizabeth Cohen-Jonathan-Moyal, Catherine Seva.
      Recurrence of GBM is thought to be due to GBMSCs, which are particularly chemo-radioresistant and characterized by a high capacity to invade normal brain. Evidence is emerging that modulation of m6A RNA methylation plays an important role in tumor progression. However, the impact of this mRNA modification in GBM is poorly studied. We used patient-derived GBMSCs to demonstrate that high expression of the RNA demethylase, ALKBH5, increases radioresistance by regulating homologous recombination (HR). In cells downregulated for ALKBH5, we observed a decrease in GBMSC survival after irradiation likely due to a defect in DNA-damage repair. Indeed, we observed a decrease in the expression of several genes involved in the HR, including CHK1 and RAD51, as well as a persistence of γ-H2AX staining after IR. We also demonstrated in this study that ALKBH5 contributes to the aggressiveness of GBM by favoring the invasion of GBMSCs. Indeed, GBMSCs deficient for ALKBH5 exhibited a significant reduced invasion capability relative to control cells. Our data suggest that ALKBH5 is an attractive therapeutic target to overcome radioresistance and invasiveness of GBMSCs.
    Keywords:  ALKBH5; cancer stem cells; glioblastomas; radio-resistance; signaling
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13010040
  13. RNA. 2020 Dec 29. pii: rna.077271.120. [Epub ahead of print]
    A mark of disease: how mRNA modifications shape genetic and acquired pathologies.
    Eliana Destefanis, Gülben Avşar, Paula Groza, Antonia Romitelli, Serena Torrini, Pınar Pir, Silvestro Giovanni Conticello, Francesca Aguilo, Erik Dassi.
      RNA modifications have recently emerged as a widespread and complex facet of gene expression regulation. Counting more than 170 distinct chemical modifications with far-reaching implications for RNA fate, they are collectively referred to as the epitranscriptome. These modifications can occur in all RNA species, including messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). In mRNAs, the deposition, removal, and recognition of chemical marks by writers, erasers and readers influence their structure, localization, stability, and translation. In turn, this modulates key molecular and cellular processes such as RNA metabolism, cell cycle, apoptosis, and others. Unsurprisingly, given their relevance for cellular and organismal functions, alterations of epitranscriptomic marks have been observed in a broad range of human diseases, including cancer, neurological and metabolic disorders. Here, we will review the major types of mRNA modifications and editing processes in conjunction with the enzymes involved in their metabolism, and describe their impact on human diseases. We present the current knowledge in an updated catalog. We will also discuss the emerging evidence on the crosstalk of epitranscriptomic marks and what this interplay could imply for the dynamics of mRNA modifications. Understanding how this complex regulatory layer can affect the course of human pathologies will ultimately lead to its exploitation towards novel epitranscriptomic therapeutic strategies.
    Keywords:  Epitranscriptomics; Human disease; Post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression; RNA modifications; mRNA
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1261/rna.077271.120
  14. Med Sci Monit. 2020 Dec 28. 26 e928400
    A Prognostic Molecular Signature of N⁶-Methyladenosine Methylation Regulators for Soft-Tissue Sarcoma from The Cancer Genome Atlas Database.
    Mingming Hou, Xiaohui Guo, Yu Chen, Lidan Cong, Changwu Pan.
      BACKGROUND Soft-tissue sarcomas are a group of heterogeneous and rare mesenchymal tumors with aggressive behavior. We aimed to identify the molecular signatures of N⁶-methyladenosine (m6A) methylation regulators associated with patient prognosis using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. MATERIAL AND METHODS To evaluate the role of m⁶A in soft-tissue sarcomas, genomic and clinical data were downloaded from TCGA. The copy number variations (CNVs) and mutations of m6A regulators were analyzed. RESULTS Alterations of m⁶A regulators were common, and ALKBH5 showed the highest frequency of copy number gain, while ZC3H13 had the highest frequency of loss. CNVs and mutations were closely correlated with histology (P<0.001) and tumor size (P=0.040), and CNVs were correlated with mRNA expression. Furthermore, patients with gains of METTL16, RMB15, RMB15B, YTHDC, and YTHDF3 displayed poorer overall survival (OS), and patients with gains of RBM15 and YTHDC2 and loss of IGF2BP1 had poorer disease-free survival (DFS). Further analysis indicated that CNVs and mutations of KIAA1429, YTHDF3, and IGF2BP1 were independent risk factors predicting OS and DFS. Gain of "writers" with loss of "erasers" led to worse OS than gain of "writers". Genes involved in JAK2 oncogenic signature were enriched in cases of higher expressions of METTL16, YTHDC2, and YTHDF3. Similarly, the core serum response signature was enriched in patients with higher expressions of IGF2BP1, METTL16, RBM15, and YTHDC2. CONCLUSIONS Our study provides a useful molecular tool to predict the outcome of soft-tissue sarcomas and deepens our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the development of the disease.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.12659/MSM.928400
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