RESULTS

Epitranscriptome m6A writer METTL3 promotes chemo- and radioresistance in pancreatic cancer cells (Int J Oncol, in press)

In the collaboration with the Department of Radiation Oncology, Osaka University, Taketo, et al. investigated a Epitranscriptome N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A) writer, methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3), and showed the significance in chemo- and radioresistance in pancreatic cancer cells. Given that m⁶A is the most abundant epitranscriptome modification in mammalian mRNA and recent years have seen major progress in m⁶A epitranscriptomics, the present study indicates as tumor biology its crucial roles in initiation and progression of cancer through the regulation and mechanism of RNA stabilities, mRNA splicing, microRNA processing, and mRNA translation. We are now studying which factors control m⁶A dynamically, what occurs as the resultant of written/erased/read process by RNA modification, and how significant m⁶A marking is for each of the numerous genes, in order to discover draggable targets against intractable pancreatic cancer.