The expression patterns and prognosis value of methylation modification of m6A regulators in papillary thyroid carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Background The incidence of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) has been increasing year by year, and its pathogenesis is not clear yet. The N6-methyladenosine (m6A) regulation has been proved to be related to the occurrence and development of the malignant tumors, but their expression patterns and prognostic effects in PTC remains unclear. Methods Data of 397 patients with PTC was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. R language was used to analyze the relationship between the expression level of m6A RNA methylation regulators and clinicopathologic in PTC. LASSO Cox regression analysis was conducted to construct the risk prediction model and the area under ROC curve (AUC) was employed to evaluate the prediction accuracy of the model. Results Seventeen genes were screened out and identified as important regulators of m6A RNA methylation. It was found that m6A RNA methylation regulators were significantly correlated with T and N stage of PTC. The prediction model consisting of IGF2BP1, YTHDC2 and YTHDF3 genes was established by LASSO Cox regression analysis. Through univariate and multivariate analysis, IGF2BP1 was found to be an independent risk factor affecting the prognosis of PTC. Conclusions The m6A RNA methylation regulators are involved in the development and progression of PTC. Furthermore, the risk signature composed of three selected m6A RNA methylation regulators can be used as potential marker to predict prognosis in PTC.