Recent developments in the significant effect of mRNA modification (M6A) in glioblastoma and esophageal cancer

Abstract

Over the years, there have been studies on the significant impact of epigenetic activities that impact the downstream effect of gene expression. Amongst these is the chemical modification of RNA which consists of over 100 types of RNA modifications. However, the leading mRNA modification is the N6-methyladenosine (M6A) and it is critical to cellular activity, having been shown to regulate RNA stability, splicing, translocation, and translation. The chemical modification process involved in N6-methyladenosine (M6A) is methylation, and it makes use of proteins such as the methyl-transferase complex (METC), which serve as the writer. However, the methylation process can be reversed selectively through demethylation by a group of demethylase enzymes (DMT), which serves as erasers. Methylation and demethylation are dependent on a class of RNA-binding proteins (readers) that bind as well as determine the endpoint of the RNA metabolism. There have been recent studies in the roles M6A modification and the involved proteins play in initiation, progression, self-renewal, and prognosis of fatal cancers such as esophageal cancer and glioblastoma, which have a poor prognosis. Therefore, in this review, we summarize recent findings on the role of M6A modification and the therapeutic potentials of its associated regulatory proteins in glioblastoma and esophageal cancer.

Keywords

• RNA modifications
• N6-methyladenosine
• Glioblastoma
• Esophageal cancer
• Epitranscriptomics