ABSTRACT

The current study aims to investigate the significance of N ⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) methylation-related genes in the clinical prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using bioinformatics analyses based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Transcriptome data and corresponding clinical data on m⁶A methylation-related genes (including 15 genes) were obtained from TCGA database. Differential expression of 15 genes was identified. Survival curves of subgroups based on m⁶A methylation-related gene expression levels were plotted. We selected potential predictive genes and analyzed their prognostic values using bioinformatics methods. Eleven genes (METTL3, YTHDF1, YTHDF2, YTHDF3, YTHDC1, YTHDC2, FTO, KIAA1429, HNRNPC, HNRNPA2B1, and RBM15) were found to be overexpressed in HCC. Of these, five genes had worse survival (P < 0.05). There was a significant difference in the survival rate between subgroups with different expression levels of m⁶A. We selected five potential predictors (METTL3, KIAA1429, ZC3H13, YTHDF1, and YTHDF2) that met the independent predictive value. ZC3H13 was upregulated in patients with high cancer risk, whereas METTL3, KIAA1429, YTHDF1, and YTHDF2 were downregulated. In summary, we found that the expression levels of m⁶A methylation-related genes were different in patients with HCC and correlated with survival and prognosis. This implies that m⁶A methylation-related genes may be promising prognostic indicators or therapeutic targets for HCC.

摘要

本研究旨在利用基于癌症基因组图谱 (TCGA) 数据库的生物信息学分析，探讨N ⁶ -甲基腺苷 (m ⁶ A) 甲基化相关基因在肝细胞癌 (HCC) 临床预后中的意义。m ⁶ A 甲基化相关基因（包括15个基因）的转录组数据和相应的临床数据来自TCGA数据库。鉴定了15个基因的差异表达。绘制了基于 m ⁶ A 甲基化相关基因表达水平的亚组存活曲线。我们选择了潜在的预测基因并使用生物信息学方法分析了它们的预后价值。十一基因（发现 METTL3、YTHDF1、YTHDF2、YTHDF3、YTHDC1、YTHDC2、FTO、KIAA1429、HNRNPC、HNRNPA2B1和RBM15 ) 在 HCC 中过表达。其中，五个基因的存活率较差（P < 0.05）。m ⁶ A不同表达水平的亚组间存活率存在显着差异。我们选择了满足独立预测值的五个潜在预测因子（METTL3、KIAA1429、ZC3H13、YTHDF1和YTHDF2）。ZC3H13 在具有高癌症风险的患者中上调，而METTL3、KIAA1429、YTHDF1和YTHDF2下调。综上所述，我们发现 m ⁶的表达水平A 甲基化相关基因在 HCC 患者中不同，并且与生存和预后相关。这意味着 m ⁶ A 甲基化相关基因可能是 HCC 的有希望的预后指标或治疗靶点。