m6A RNA methylation regulators contribute to malignant development and have a clinical prognostic effect on cervical cancer

Am J Transl Res. 2020 Dec 15;12(12):8137-8146. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation, which is related to the occurrence and development of cancer, is dynamically modulated by m6A RNA methylation regulators ("writers", "erasers" and "readers"). In this paper, we demonstrated that most of the 13 major m6A RNA methylation regulators were differently expressed in 306 cervical cancer tissues stratified according to different clinicopathological characteristics. We applied consensus clustering technique to analyze m6A RNA methylation regulators and identified two subgroups of cervical cancer, named RM1/2. Compared with the RM1, the RM2 had a poorer prognosis and lower overall survival (OS). This result suggested that m6A RNA methylation regulators were closely related to cervical cancer. Based on this result, we used m6A RNA methylation regulators to derive a risk marker that not only is an independent prognostic marker but also can predict the clinicopathological characteristics of cervical cancer. In conclusion, m6A RNA methylation regulator is a key player in the malignant progression of cervical cancer and has potential role in the stratification of prognosis and the formulation of treatment strategies.

Keywords: RNA methylation; cervical cancer; m6A; prognosis.