Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Oncogene. 2022 May;41(20):2860-2872. doi: 10.1038/s41388-022-02306-w. Epub 2022 Apr 14.
RNA N6-methyladenosine (mA) is an emerging regulator of mRNA modifications and represents a novel player in tumorigenesis. Although it has functional significance in both pathological and physiological processes, the role of mA modification in pancreatic ductal cancer (PDAC) remains elusive. Here, we showed that high fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) expression was associated with a poor prognosis in PDAC patients and that suppression of FTO expression inhibited cell proliferation. Here, mA sequencing (mA-seq) was performed to screen genes targeted by FTO. The effects of FTO stimulation on the biological characteristics of pancreatic cancer cells, including proliferation and colony formation, were investigated in vitro and in vivo. The results indicate that FTO directly targets platelet-derived growth factor C (PDGFC) and stabilizes its mRNA expression in an mA-YTHDF2-dependent manner. mA-methylated RNA immunoprecipitation-qPCR (MeRIP-qPCR), RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), and luciferase reporter assays were employed to validate the specific binding of FTO to PDGFC. PDGFC upregulation led to reactivation of the Akt signaling pathway, promoting cell growth. Overall, our study reveals that FTO downregulation leads to increased mA modifications in the 3' UTR of PDGFC and then modulates the degradation of its transcriptional level in an mA-YTHDF2-dependent manner, highlighting a potential therapeutic target for PDAC treatment and prognostic prediction.
RNA N6-甲基腺嘌呤(mA)是一种新兴的 mRNA 修饰调节剂,在肿瘤发生中代表了一种新的参与者。尽管它在病理和生理过程中都具有功能意义,但 mA 修饰在胰腺导管腺癌(PDAC)中的作用仍然难以捉摸。在这里,我们表明高脂肪和肥胖相关基因(FTO)的表达与 PDAC 患者的预后不良相关,并且抑制 FTO 表达抑制了细胞增殖。在这里,进行了 mA 测序(mA-seq)以筛选受 FTO 靶向的基因。在体外和体内研究了 FTO 刺激对胰腺癌细胞生物学特性的影响,包括增殖和集落形成。结果表明,FTO 直接靶向血小板衍生生长因子 C(PDGFC),并以 mA-YTHDF2 依赖性方式稳定其 mRNA 表达。mA 修饰的 RNA 免疫沉淀-qPCR(MeRIP-qPCR)、RNA 免疫沉淀(RIP)和荧光素酶报告基因测定用于验证 FTO 与 PDGFC 的特异性结合。PDGFC 的上调导致 Akt 信号通路的重新激活,从而促进细胞生长。总的来说,我们的研究表明,FTO 下调导致 PDGFC 的 3'UTR 中 mA 修饰增加,然后以 mA-YTHDF2 依赖性方式调节其转录水平的降解,这为 PDAC 的治疗和预后预测提供了一个潜在的治疗靶点。