Insights into the Regulatory Role of mA Epitranscriptome in Glioblastoma.

N-methyladenosine (mA) is one of the most widespread and abundant internal messenger RNA modifications found in eukaryotes. Emerging evidence suggests that this modification is strongly linked to the activation and inhibition of cancer pathways and is associated with prognostically significant tumour subtypes. The present review describes the dynamic nature of mA regulator enzymes, as methyltransferases, demethylases and mA binding proteins, and points out thevalue of the balance among these proteins in regulating gene expression, cell metabolism and cancer development. The main focus of this review is on the roles of mA modification in glioblastoma, the most aggressive and invariably lethal brain tumour. Although the study of mA in glioblastoma is a young one, and papers in this field can yield divergent conclusions, the results collected so far clearly demonstrate that modulation of mRNA mA levels impacts multiple aspects of this tumour, including growth, glioma stem cells self-renewal, and tumorigenesis, suggesting that mRNA mA modification may serve as a promising target for glioblastoma therapy. We also present recent data about another type of epitranscriptomic modification, the methylation of cytosine at a specific site of 28S rRNA, as it was recently shown to affect the biology of glioma cells, with high potential of clinical implications.