RNA methylations in human cancers

Abstract

RNA methylations, as the prevalent post-transcriptional modifications, are critical in regulating various biological processes, such as RNA transcription, splicing, structure, stability, and translation. Its dysregulation is closely related to the occurrence of human malignancies. The advance of high-throughput sequencing technology facilitates the investigations about how methylation of coding and non-coding RNAs regulates cancer progression through reshaping the transcriptomics. Here, we review the current progress about the regulatory role of several representative RNA modifications in cancers, including N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A), 5-methylcytosine (m⁵C), N¹-methyladenosine (m¹A) and 2'-O-methylation (Nm). Meanwhile, we also discuss the potential clinical value of RNA methylation in diagnostic and therapeutic implications of human cancers.

Keywords: Human cancer; RNA methylation regulators; RNA modification; Targeting therapy.