m(6)A RNA Methylation Regulators Impact Prognosis and Tumor Microenvironment in Renal Papillary Cell Carcinoma

Accumulating evidence has proven that N6-methyladenosine (m(6)A) RNA methylation plays an essential role in tumorigenesis. However, the significance of m(6)A RNA methylation modulators in the malignant progression of papillary renal cell carcinoma (PRCC) and their impact on prognosis has not been fully analyzed. The present research set out to explore the roles of 17 m(6)A RNA methylation regulators in tumor microenvironment (TME) of PRCC and identify the prognostic values of m(6)A RNA methylation regulators in patients afflicted by PRCC. We investigated the different expression patterns of the m(6)A RNA methylation regulators between PRCC tumor samples and normal tissues, and systematically explored the association of the expression patterns of these genes with TME cell-infiltrating characteristics. Additionally, we used LASSO regression to construct a risk signature based upon the m(6)A RNA methylation modulators. Two-gene prognostic risk model including IGF2BP3 and HNRNPC was constructed and could predict overall survival (OS) of PRCC patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. The prognostic signature-based risk score was identified as an independent prognostic indicator in Cox regression analysis. Moreover, we predicted the three most significant small molecule drugs that potentially inhibit PRCC. Taken together, our study revealed that m(6)A RNA methylation regulators might play a significant role in the initiation and progression of PRCC. The results might provide novel insight into exploration of m(6)A RNA modification in PRCC and provide essential guidance for therapeutic strategies.