The comprehensive analysis identifies the lncRNA involved in N6- methyladenosine and glycolysis activity in colon cancer

Abstract Background: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) exerted an important role in colon cancer. Nevertheless, the lncRNAs involved in this process remain unclear. Methods: The open-accessed data used for analysis was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and analyzed using the R software. Results: In our study, we firstly collected the expression value of m6A regulators from TCGA data. Then, the lncRNAs with |Cor| > 0.3 and P < 0.05 of these m6A molecules were identified and defined as m6A-related lncRNAs. Moreover, we established a prognosis signature based on ten m6A-related lncRNAs, consisting of AL360181.1, PCAT6, SNHG26, AC016876.1, AC104667.2, AL114730.3, LINC02257, AC147067.1, AP006621.3 and AC009237.14, which showed satisfactory prediction efficiency in patients survival. Immune-related analysis indicated a diverse immune cell infiltration pattern between high and low risk patients. Also, we found that the low risk patients might be more sensitive to immunotherapy. Biological enrichment analysis indicated that the high risk patients had a higher activity of multiple carcinogenic pathways, including glycolysis. The lncRNA AL360181.1 has not been reported previously. Meanwhile, the lncRNA AL360181.1 was correlated with glycolysis activity and worse survival performance, therefore selected for further analysis. The result indicated that AL360181.1 was correlated with worse clinical features. Immune infiltration analysis indicated that AL360181.1 was positively correlated with Tcm infiltration, yet negatively correlated with Th2 cells, T cells, neutrophils, iDC and macrophages. Biological enrichment analysis indicated that the pathways of WNT/β-catenin, pancreas beta cells, hedgehog signaling, bile acid metabolism, bile acid metabolism, and fatty acid metabolism were upregulated in the patients with high AL360181.1 expression Conclusions: Our result can improve the understanding of m6A-related lncRNA in colon cancer and provide direction for future studies.