Correlations of m6A Methylation-Related lncRNAs with the Prognosis of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma.

Abstract

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common subtype of thyroid cancer. Recurrence makes the prognosis for some patients with PTC worse. Increasing evidence have suggested that N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation plays an important role in tumorigenesis. However, the significance of m6A-related lncRNAs in the malignant progression of PTC remains unknown. In this study, we explored the significance of M6A-related lncrnas in the malignant progression of PTC. Transcriptome and clinical data of PTC were achieved and integrated from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Firstly, a Spearman correlation analysis was performed to obtain m6A RNA methylation-associated lncRNAs. Next, We constructed a prognostic signature and assessed the accuracy of the signature by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and Kaplan Meier survival analyses. Furthermore, functional enrichment analysis was performed on the high- and low-risk groups. Finally, we determined prognostic gene expression in clinical samples using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). We identified 56 differentially expressed lncRNAs associated with m6A RNA methylation. Univariate Cox and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression analyses showed that the survival-related lncRNAs associated with m6A RNA methylation were detected, which showed superior calibration and discrimination. Moreover, the biological processes related to energy metabolism were significantly activated in the high-risk group. Finally, the co-expressed genes of lncRNAs in the risk model were significantly enriched in biological processes related to copper ion response. Finally, we validated the expression levels of three prognostic genes in clinical samples using RT-qPCR. Our study revealed m6A RNA methylation-associated lncRNAs were significantly associated with disease-free survival in patients with papillary thyroid cancer, which would improve our understanding of the relationship between m6A RNA methylation-associated lncRNAs and PTC.