Pan-cancer analysis of Methyltransferase-like 16 (METTL16) and validated in colorectal cancer.

Abstract

Human Methyltransferase-like 16(METTL16) is an independent N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methyltransferase. Previous studies have proven METTL16 been linked with some types of cancers. However, comparative studies of the relevance of METTL16 across diverse tumors remain sparse. We comprehensively investigated the effect of METTL16 expression on tumor prognosis across human malignancies by analyzing multiple cancer-related databases like Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) and human protein atlas (HPA). Bioinformatics data indicated that METTL16 was overexpressed in most of these human malignancies and was significantly associated with the prognosis of patients with cancer, especially in colorectal cancer (CRC). Subsequently, In vitro experiments, the utility of METTL16 that downregulation of its expression could result in reduced proliferation and migration of CRC cells. Our findings reveal novel insights into METTL16 expression and its biological functions in diverse cancer types, indicating that METTL16 could serve as a prognostic biomarker and plays an important role in colorectal cancer.