Systematic integration of m6A regulators and autophagy-related genes in combination with long non-coding RNAs predicts survival in glioblastoma multiforme

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 17232
• Main Authors: Sharma, Amit, Wang, Yulu, Ge, Fangfang, Chen, Peng, Dakal, Tikam Chand, Carro, Maria Stella, Schmidt-Wolf, Ingo G. H., Maciaczyk, Jarek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 11-10-2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/67/1922; 631/67/68/2486; Antineoplastic drugs; Antitumor agents; Autophagy; Brain cancer; Cancer; DNA methylation; Epigenetics; Glioblastoma; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Non-coding RNA; Risk groups; RNA modification; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Survival; Transcriptomics
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-44087-6

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is probably the only tumor in which a unique epigenetic alteration, namely methylation of the MGMT gene, possesses direct clinical relevance. Now with the emergence of aberrant N6 methyladenosine (m6A) modifications (the most common epigenetic modification of mRNA, closely linked to the autophagy process) in cancer, the epi-transcriptomic landscape of GBM pathobiology has been expanded. Considering this, herein, we systematically analyzed m6A regulators, assessed their correlation with autophagy-related genes (ATG), and established a long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA)-dependent prognostic signature (m6A-autophagy-lncRNAs) for GBM. Our analysis identified a novel signature of five long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs:
ITGA6-AS1, AC124248.1, NFYC-AS1, AC025171.1,
and
AC005229.3
) associated with survival of GBM patients, and four among them clearly showed cancer-associated potential. We further validated and confirmed the altered expression of two lncRNAs (
AC124248.1, AC005229.3
) in GBM associated clinical samples using RT-PCR. Concerning the prognostic ability, the obtained signature determined high-/low-risk groups in GBM patients and showed sensitivity to anticancer drugs. Collectively, the m6A-autophagy-lncRNAs signature presented in the study is clinically relevant and is the first attempt to systematically predict the potential interaction between the three key determinants (m6A, autophagy, lncRNA) in cancer, particularly in GBM.