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Review
. 2020 Jul 17;10(7):1071.
doi: 10.3390/biom10071071.

Critical Roles of N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) in Cancer and Virus Infection

Ken Asada  1   2 , Amina Bolatkan  1   2 , Ken Takasawa  1   2 , Masaaki Komatsu  1   2 , Syuzo Kaneko  2 , Ryuji Hamamoto  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Critical Roles of N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) in Cancer and Virus Infection

Ken Asada et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Studies have shown that epigenetic abnormalities are involved in various diseases, including cancer. In particular, in order to realize precision medicine, the integrated analysis of genetics and epigenetics is considered to be important; detailed epigenetic analysis in the medical field has been becoming increasingly important. In the epigenetics analysis, DNA methylation and histone modification analyses have been actively studied for a long time, and many important findings were accumulated. On the other hand, recently, attention has also been focused on RNA modification in the field of epigenetics; now it is known that RNA modification is associated with various biological functions, such as regulation of gene expression. Among RNA modifications, functional analysis of N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most abundant RNA modification found from humans to plants is actively progressing, and it has also been known that m6A abnormality is involved in cancer and other diseases. Importantly, recent studies have shown that m6A is related to viral infections. Considering the current world situation under threat of viral infections, it is important to deepen knowledge of RNA modification from the viewpoint of viral diseases. Hence, in this review, we have summarized the recent findings regarding the roles of RNA modifications in biological functions, cancer biology, and virus infection, particularly focusing on m6A in mRNA.

Keywords: RNA modification; RNA virus; cancer; epigenetics; methylation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Molecular mechanism of N6-methyladenosine methylation. SAM: S-adenosylmethionine. SAH: S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Molecular mechanism of N6-methyladenosine demethylation. (A) Overall biochemical process of m6A demethylation. (B) The enzymatic reaction of the first step of demethylation. FTO: fat mass and obesity-associated protein. ALKBH5: alkB homolog 5, RNA demethylase.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Biological functions of N6-methyladenosine. The main writer complex, readers, and erasers are involved in the processes of mRNA metabolism and mediate RNA folding, splicing, stability, transport, and translation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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