Clinicopathological and immunological characterization of RNA m6A methylation regulators in ovarian cancer

BACKGROUND N6 -methyladenosine (m6 A) modification is one of the critical gene regulatory mechanisms implicated in cancer biology. However, the roles of m6 A regulators in ovarian cancer are still poorly understood. METHODS We integrated multiple databases including Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), ROC Plotter, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) to explore clinicopathological significance of m6 A regulators in ovarian cancer. RESULTS We showed that alterations in the expression of m6 A regulators were related to the malignancy and poor prognosis of ovarian cancer. We found decreased YTHDC1 and increased RBM15 expressions were associated with ovarian cancer cell metastases and HNRNPC was a predictor of paclitaxel resistance. Moreover, dysregulated m6 A regulators were enriched in the activation of cancer-related pathways. Our results further demonstrated that the level of immune cell infiltration and the expression of various immune gene markers were closely associated with the expressions of specific m6 A regulators (RBM15B, ZC3H13, YTHDF1, and IGF2BP1). CONCLUSIONS Our study establishes a new prognostic profile of ovarian cancer patients based on m6 A regulators, and highlights the potential roles of m6 A regulators in ovarian cancer development.