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m6A regulators are differently expressed and correlated with immune response of pancreatic adenocarcinoma

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Abstract

Background

N6 methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation regulators play a key role in the occurrence and development of many tumors. However, the function of N6 methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation regulators in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) has not been fully clarified.

Methods

We used data set from GEPIA 2, UALCAN, TIMER, TISIDB, CBioPortal database to analyze the gene expression of 20 major m6A RNA methylation regulators.

Results

Our study revealed that the irregularity of m6A regulators were associated with poor prognosis in PAAD. Meantime, 13 m6A regulators showed high expression in PAAD samples (ALKBH5, ELAVL1, FTO, HNRNPC, IGF2BP2, METTL14, METTL16 (METT10D), RBM15, VIRMA (KIAA1429), YTHDF1, YTHDF2, YTHDF3 and ZC3H13). In these regulators, we evaluated HNRNPC and IGF2BP2 were significantly correlated with worse outcomes and ALKBH5, IGF2BP2, METTL16 (METT10D), RBM15 were significantly correlated with PAAD in advanced stage. Moreover, we showed m6A regulators is correlated with Immuno-regulators' (Immunoinhibitors, Immunostimulators and MHC molecules) expression and levels of immune infiltration in PAAD. Bioinformatics further demonstrate m6A regulators were participated in revising in RNA processing.

Conclusions

Our study investigated that the m6A regulatory factors may serve as a biomarker and a potential target of immunotherapy for PAAD.

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Data availability

The data sets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

ACC:

Adrenocortical carcinoma

BLCA:

Bladder urothelial carcinoma

BRCA:

Breast invasive carcinoma

CESC:

Cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma

COAD:

Colon adenocarcinoma

ESCA:

Esophageal carcinoma

GBM:

Glioblastoma multiforme

HNSC:

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

KIRC:

Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma

LGG:

Brain lower grade glioma

LIHC:

Liver hepatocellular carcinoma

LUAD:

Lung adenocarcinoma

LUSC:

Lung squamous cell carcinoma

OV:

Ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma

PAAD:

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma

PRAD:

Prostate adenocarcinoma

STAD:

Stomach adenocarcinoma

UCEC:

Uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma

OS:

Overall survival

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Yunnan Digestive Endoscopy Clinical Medical Center Foundation for Health Commission of Yunnan Province [2021LCZXXF-XH10]and[2022LCZXKF-XH09] of [ZX2019-01-02], Yunnan Fundamental Research Projects (grant NO. 202201AU070031), and we would like to express our sincere thanks to the database of GEPIA 2, UALCAN, TIMER, TISIDB, CBioPortal for supporting our research.

Funding

This study was founded by the Yunnan Digestive Endoscopy Clinical Medical Center Foundation for Health Commission of Yunnan Province [2021LCZXXF-XH10]and[2022LCZXKF-XH09] of [ZX2019-01-02], Yunnan Fundamental Research Projects (grant NO. 202201AU070031).

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Author notes

  1. Tao Zhang and Ping Sheng are contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pancreatic and Biliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China

    Tao Zhang

  2. Department of General Surgery, The First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province (The Affiliated Hospital of Kunming University of Science and Technology), Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

    Ping Sheng

  3. Center for Endemic Disease Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China

    Yuting Jiang

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  1. Tao Zhang
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Contributions

YJ designed the study. TZ and PS performed the analyses and experiments. All authors wrote the manuscript, read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuting Jiang.

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Zhang, T., Sheng, P. & Jiang, Y. m6A regulators are differently expressed and correlated with immune response of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 149, 2805–2822 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-022-04150-7

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