Analysis of m6A methylation patterns and tumor microenvironment in endometrial cancer

Abstract

Background: The N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) modification is the most common epigenetic modification in eukaryotic mRNA. In recent years, lots of studies have shown that the tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a critical role in tumor growth and development. However, there are few studies on the interaction between m⁶A methylation and the TME in uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC).

Methods: Three distinct m⁶A modification patterns were based on 21 m⁶A regulators of UCEC patients and tumor-free individuals. We investigated the relationship between m⁶A modification patterns and associated features of the TME. Differentially expressed genes were selected and the m⁶A score was established to evaluate the prognosis and immunotherapeutic efficacy of UCEC patients.

Results: We identified three different m⁶A modification patterns. The TME infiltrating characteristics were highly consistent with tumors with three distinct immune phenotypes. Besides, our analysis showed that the m⁶A score was shown to be useful in predicting clinical outcomes. Patients with the low m⁶A score seemed to have a better prognosis, a stronger immunotherapeutic response, and a higher tumor mutation burden.

Conclusion: Our study explored the influence of m⁶A modification and TME on the prognosis of cancer patients, which will contribute to the discovery of immunotherapy strategies to improve their prognosis.

Keywords: Endometrial cancer; Immunotherapy; M(6)A; RNA methylation; Tumor microenvironment.