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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Genetics
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1522157
This article is part of the Research Topic RNA Methylation and Demethylation in Tumorigenesis and as Therapeutic Targets View all articles

The human m6A methyltransferase METTL5 promotes tumorigenesis via DEPDC1 in Lung squamous cell carcinoma

Provisionally accepted
Jianjun Fu Jianjun Fu *Yang Yan Yang Yan
  • Gaoxin Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) is one of the post-transcriptional modifications and abnormal m6A is critical for cancer initiation, progression, metastasis in Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC). Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) accounts for most of the total cellular RNA, however, the functions and molecular mechanisms underlying rRNA modifications in LUSC remained largely unclear. Here, we show that the N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methyltransferase METTL5 is an independent risk factor in LUSC and is associated with poor prognosis of patients. Notedly, overexpression METTL5 promoted LUSC tumorigenesis in an m6A modification, while METTL5 knockdown markedly inhibited proliferation and migratory ability of tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, METTL5 promoted LUSC tumorigenesis via m6a methyltransferase to increase the translation of DEP domain containing 1 (DEPDC1). Therefore, our results revealed that METTL5 enhances DEPDC1 translation to contribute to tumorigenesis and poor prognosis, providing a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for LUSC.

    Keywords: LUSC, METTL5, DEPDC1, biomarker, m6A modification

    Received: 04 Nov 2024; Accepted: 27 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Fu and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jianjun Fu, Gaoxin Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China

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