METTL7B serves as a prognostic biomarker and promotes metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma cells

BACKGROUND: To research the correlation between the prognosis of patients suffering from lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and methyltransferase like 7B (METTL7B) expression. METHODS: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was utilized to verify METTL7B expression, and The Human Protein Atlas database was utilized to verify METTL7B expression at the tissue level. The relationship between METTL7B and LUAD prognostic data was then analyzed using the KM-plotter database. The correlation between METTL7B expression and immune cells was demonstrated through the TIMER database. For exploring the possible mechanism of action, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed. Finally, the role of METTL7B in the adverse biological events of LUAD was further explored by in vitro experiments such as proliferation and invasion assays. RESULTS: As per the TCGA database, METTL7B expression was increased in cancerous tissues compared with paracancerous tissues, and it was mostly located in the cytoplasm. Patients suffering from LUAD who had low METTL7B expression had a relatively better overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) according to the Kaplan-Meier-plotter (KM-plotter) database. METTL7B expression was significantly associated with immune cell infiltration in LUAD patients, as shown by correlation analysis. GSEA revealed that METTL7B may affect the physiological events of LUAD by playing a part in cell cycle regulation. In vitro cytological experiments demonstrated that METTL7B can markedly affect the metastasis of LUAD cells. CONCLUSIONS: The reduction of METTL7B expression can prolong OS and DSS in LUAD patients. It may be utilized as a novel predictive biomarker of LUAD, and may be associated with immune infiltration of LUAD. Interfering with METTL7B expression can significantly cause inhibition of LUAD by modulating the ability of cells to proliferate and migrate. These results point to a possible target for developing anti-cancer therapies against LUAD.