NSUN6, a Gene Related With m5c Methylation, May Serve as a Biomarker for Pan-cancer

Abstract Background: 5-methylcytosine (m5c) is a common chemical alteration in DNA and RNA, however unlike DNA modifying enzymes, the methyl-transferases that make m5c changes in RNA are little understood. The putative RNA methyltransferase NSUN6 is a member of the Nol1/Nop2/SUN domain (NSUN) protein family, but its function in most malignancies is uncertain.Methods: The relevance of NSUN6 in tumor metabolism and tumor immunity was investigated in the present study. Through a pan-cancer analysis using multiple databases. The expression levels, prognosis, tumor progression, immunological checkpoints, and immune metabolism of NSUN6 in 33 cancers were determined using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), and Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) datasets. The current study looked at pathways, immunological checkpoints, immune neo-antigens, immune microenvironment, tumor mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), DNA mismatch repair (MMR), and the usefulness of NSUN6 methyl-transferases. For quantitative analysis and panoramic description, the R package was employed.Results: We discovered that NSUN6 is variably expressed in pan carcinomas, and that NSUN6 was typically related with the prognosis of ACC, COAD, KIRC, SARC, and THCA, where low expression of NSUN6 was associated with a significantly worse prognosis. While high NSUN6 expression has been linked to a worse prognosis in patients with BLCA, LGG, and PAAD. Second, we confirmed that the level of NSUN6 expression was linked to tumor immune infiltration and the tumor microenvironment, particularly in BLCA, KIRC, and KIRP. Finally, in addition to TMB and MSI in pan-malignancies, NSUN6 was linked to immunological neo-antigen and immune checkpoint gene expression profiles in all cancers.Conclusion: NSUN6 is variably expressed in pan-cancers and has the potential to be used as a predictive biomarker for tumors.