Clinical and prognostic pan-cancer analysis of m6A RNA methylation regulators in four types of endocrine system tumors

Aging (Albany NY). 2020 Nov 20;12(23):23931-23944. doi: 10.18632/aging.104064. Epub 2020 Nov 20.

Abstract

N6-methyladenosine (m6A), internal modification of mRNA, has recently been reported to be an important regulatory mechanism affecting tumor proliferation. However, its role in endocrine system tumors is poorly understood. We obtained datasets for four types tumors from the TCGA database, analyzed the GTEx database as a supplement to the control group, and used "Perl" and "R" software to analyze the datasets. Then we differentiated the expression level, used it to cluster consensus. Besides, we established lasso regression model to screen variables, used univariate and multivariate cox analyses to explore the independent risk factors associated with cancer prognosis. The results indicated that except for WTAP, the expression level of METTL3 was negatively correlated with other genes. The expression level of WTAP and METTL16 was positively correlated with overall survival (OS). Moreover, we found that different clinical subtypes of adrenal cortical carcinoma had significant differences in survival status, histologic grading, pathological T grade, and OS. Furthermore, different clinical subtypes of thyroid carcinoma had significant differences in histologic grading and pathological T grade. The differential expression of m6A regulatory genes is closely associated with the presence of endocrine-system-related tumors, and risk scores can be used to assess prognosis.

Keywords: endocrine system tumors; m6A methylation regulators; pan-cancer analysis; prognosis; risk score.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenosine / analogs & derivatives*
  • Adenosine / metabolism
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / metabolism*
  • Cell Cycle Proteins / genetics
  • Cell Cycle Proteins / metabolism
  • Databases, Genetic
  • Endocrine Gland Neoplasms / genetics
  • Endocrine Gland Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Endocrine Gland Neoplasms / mortality
  • Endocrine Gland Neoplasms / pathology
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
  • Humans
  • Methylation
  • Methyltransferases / genetics
  • Methyltransferases / metabolism
  • Neoplasm Grading
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • RNA Splicing Factors / genetics
  • RNA Splicing Factors / metabolism
  • RNA, Neoplasm / genetics
  • RNA, Neoplasm / metabolism*
  • RNA-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • RNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Transcriptome

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Cell Cycle Proteins
  • IGF2BP3 protein, human
  • RNA Splicing Factors
  • RNA, Neoplasm
  • RNA-Binding Proteins
  • WTAP protein, human
  • N-methyladenosine
  • METTL16 protein, human
  • Methyltransferases
  • METTL3 protein, human
  • Adenosine