AUTHOR=Gu Jing , Bi Fangfang 

TITLE=Significance of N6-Methyladenosine RNA Methylation Regulators in Immune Infiltrates of Ovarian Cancer

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2021.671179

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2021.671179

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=Increasing evidence has revealed that N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation regulators play an important role in the occurrence and development of tumors. In our research, we aimed to identify the potential roles of m6A RNA methylation regulators in immune infiltrates of ovarian cancer. We obtained 2 distinct m6A patterns (m6Acluster.A and m6Acluster.B) based on the expression levels of all 21 m6A RNA methylation regulators from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database using a consensus clustering algorithm. Differential analysis between m6Acluster.A and m6Acluster.B identified 196 m6A-related genes. We validated the m6A regulation mechanism based on the 196 m6A-related genes using another consensus clustering algorithm. Considering the individual differences, principal component analysis algorithms were performed to calculate an m6A score for each sample to quantify the m6A patterns. A low m6A score was associated with immune activation and enhanced response to immune checkpoint inhibitors, while a high m6A score was associated with tumor progression. In summary, m6A regulators play non-negligible roles in immune infiltrates of ovarian cancer. Our investigation of m6A patterns may help to guide future immunotherapy strategies for advanced ovarian cancer.