Background: N6 -methyladenosine (m6 A) modification is one of the critical gene regulatory mechanisms implicated in cancer biology. However, the roles of m6 A regulators in ovarian cancer are still poorly understood.
Methods: We integrated multiple databases including Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), ROC Plotter, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) to explore clinicopathological significance of m6 A regulators in ovarian cancer.
Results: We showed that alterations in the expression of m6 A regulators were related to the malignancy and poor prognosis of ovarian cancer. We found decreased YTHDC1 and increased RBM15 expressions were associated with ovarian cancer cell metastases and HNRNPC was a predictor of paclitaxel resistance. Moreover, dysregulated m6 A regulators were enriched in the activation of cancer-related pathways. Our results further demonstrated that the level of immune cell infiltration and the expression of various immune gene markers were closely associated with the expressions of specific m6 A regulators (RBM15B, ZC3H13, YTHDF1, and IGF2BP1).
Conclusions: Our study establishes a new prognostic profile of ovarian cancer patients based on m6 A regulators, and highlights the potential roles of m6 A regulators in ovarian cancer development.
Keywords: immune infiltration; m6A regulators; ovarian cancer; survival.
© 2020 The Authors. Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.