IMR Press / FBL / Volume 28 / Issue 6 / DOI: 10.31083/j.fbl2806120
Open Access Original Research
Expression of m6A RNA Methylation Regulators and Their Clinical Predictive Value in Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma
Show Less
1 Department of Gastroenterology, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, 200041 Shanghai, China
2 Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, 200041 Shanghai, China
3 Department of Neurosurgery, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, 200041 Shanghai, China
4 Digestive Disease Center, The Second People’s Hospital of Jiulongpo District, 401324 Chongqing, China
5 Department of Gastroenterology, Punan Branch of Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, 200125 Shanghai, China
6 Department of Gastroenterology, Shanghai Punan Hospital of Pudong New District, 200125 Shanghai, China
*Correspondence: cfy429@163.com (Fengyuan Chen)
These authors contributed equally.
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2023, 28(6), 120; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.fbl2806120
Submitted: 16 December 2022 | Revised: 2 February 2023 | Accepted: 10 February 2023 | Published: 27 June 2023
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation regulators have been implicated in the carcinogenesis and progress of a variety of cancers. Until now, the effects of them on intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) have been poorly understood. Methods: We used the GEO databases to systematically evaluate the expression profiles of 36 m6A RNA methylation regulators in ICC patients and produced a signature to assess its prognostic values. In vitro experiments were implemented to confirm the expression level. Results: Compared to normal intrahepatic bile duct tissues, more than half of these 36 genes showed different levels of expression in ICC tissues. Two groups emerged from the consensus cluster analysis of these 36 genes. The two cluster of patients had significantly different clinical outcomes. In addition, we created a m6A-related prognostic signature that performed exceptionally well in the prognostic categorization of ICC patients, based on the ROC curves, Kaplan-Meier curves, and univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Further research showed that there was a significant association between the m6A-related signature and the manifestations of tumor immune microenvironment in ICC. The expression level and biological effect of METTL16, one of the two m6A RNA methylation regulators incorporated in the signature, were confirmed and explored by using in vitro experiments. Conclusions: This analysis revealed the predictive roles of m6A RNA methylation regulators in ICC.

Keywords
intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma
m6A RNA methylation regulators
prognosis
signature
GEO database
Funding
PKJ2022-Y84/Shanghai Pudong New Area Science and Technology Development Fund for people’s livelihood in public institutions
Figures
Fig. 1.
Share
Back to top