Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

RNA N6-methyladenosine: a new player in autophagy-mediated anti-cancer drug resistance

British Journal of Cancer volume 124, pages 1621–1622 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Summary

Dysregulation of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is associated with cancer development and progression. The m6A modification plays a crucial role in autophagy regulation precipitating anti-cancer drug resistance. In line with this fact, this commentary discusses m6A modification interfering with autophagy machinery as a major contributing factor for drug resistance in cancer.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Role of m6A modification in sorafenib resistance by modulating autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

References

  1. Quagliano, A., Gopalakrishnapillai, A. & Barwe, S. P. Understanding the mechanisms by which epigenetic modifiers avert therapy resistance in cancer. Front. Oncol. 10, 992 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Ouyang, Y., Wu, Q., Li, J., Sun, S. & Sun, S. S‐adenosylmethionine: a metabolite critical to the regulation of autophagy. Cell Prolif. 53, e12891 (2020).

  3. Xiang, M., Liu, W., Tian, W., You, A. & Deng, D. RNA N-6-methyladenosine enzymes and resistance of cancer cells to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Epigenomics 12, 801–809 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Li, X., He, S. & Ma, B. Autophagy and autophagy-related proteins in cancer. Mol. Cancer 19, 12 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Huang, H., Weng, H. & Chen, J. m6A modification in coding and non-coding RNAs: roles and therapeutic implications in cancer. Cancer Cell 37, 270–288 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Anitha, R., Paramasivam, A., Vijayashree Priyadharsini, J. & Chitra, S. The m6A readers YTHDF1 and YTHDF3 aberrations associated with metastasis and predict poor prognosis in breast cancer patients. Am. J. Cancer Res. 10, 2546–2554 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Lin, Z., Niu, Y., Wan, A., Chen, D., Liang, H., Chen, X. et al. RNA m6 A methylation regulates sorafenib resistance in liver cancer through FOXO3-mediated autophagy. EMBO J 39, e103181 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Jin, S., Zhang, X., Miao, Y., Liang, P., Zhu, K., She, Y. et al. m(6)A RNA modification controls autophagy through upregulating ULK1 protein abundance. Cell Res. 28, 955–957 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, X., Wu, R., Liu, Y., Zhao, Y., Bi, Z., Yao, Y. et al. m6A mRNA methylation controls autophagy and adipogenesis by targeting Atg5 and Atg7. Autophagy 16, 1221–1235 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Zhou, S., Bai, Z. L., Xia, D., Zhao, Z. J., Zhao, R., Wang, Y. Y. et al. FTO regulates the chemo-radiotherapy resistance of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) by targeting beta-catenin through mRNA demethylation. Mol. Carcinog. 57, 590–597 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Yang, S., Wei, J., Cui, Y. H., Park, G., Shah, P., Deng, Y. et al. M(6)A mRNA demethylase FTO regulates melanoma tumorigenicity and response to anti-PD-1 blockade. Nat. Commun. 10, 2782 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhu, H., Gan, X., Jiang, X., Diao, S., Wu, H. & Hu, J. ALKBH5 in BCL-2hibited autophagy of epithelial ovarian cancer through miR-7 and BCL-2. J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res. 38, 163 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Taketo, K., Konno, M., Asai, A., Koseki, J., Toratani, M., Satoh, T. et al. The epitranscriptome m6A writer METTL3 promotes chemo- and radioresistance in pancreatic cancer cells. Int. J. Oncol. 52, 621–629 (2018).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Ding, N., You, A., Tian, W., Gu, L. & Deng, D. Chidamide increases the sensitivity of non-small cell lung cancer to crizotinib by decreasing c-MET mRNA methylation. Int. J. Biol. Sci. 16, 2595–2611 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Kong, F., Liu, X., Zhou, Y., Hou, X., He, J., Li, Q. et al. Downregulation of METTL14 increases apoptosis and autophagy induced by cisplatin in pancreatic cancer cells. Int. J. Biochem. Cell Biol. 122, 105731 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cellular and Molecular Research Centre, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Saveetha University, Chennai, India

    Arumugam Paramasivam & Jayaseelan Vijayashree Priyadharsini

Authors
  1. Arumugam Paramasivam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jayaseelan Vijayashree Priyadharsini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Both the authors wrote the manuscript and performed literature search.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arumugam Paramasivam.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Data availability

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Funding information

This study was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research (Grant No. DHR-GIA, 2020-9530), Government of India.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Paramasivam, A., Priyadharsini, J.V. RNA N6-methyladenosine: a new player in autophagy-mediated anti-cancer drug resistance. Br J Cancer 124, 1621–1622 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01314-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01314-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links