N6-methyladenosine modification (m6A), one of the most abundant cellular RNA modifications, regulates key processes in RNA metabolism during a stress response.
Gene expression profiles observed post-infection with different SARS-CoV-2 variants show changes in the expression of genes related to RNA catabolism, including m6A readers and erasers. We found that infection with SARS-CoV-2 variants caused a loss of m6A in cellular RNAs, whereas m6A was detected abundantly in viral RNA. METTL3, the m6A methyltransferase, showed an unusual cytoplasmic localization post-infection.
The study findings were published on a preprint server and are currently being peer reviewed.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.08.519593v1
The discovery is worrisome as accumulating evidence suggests that m6A RNA methylation modulates gene expression, thereby regulating cellular processes ranging from cell self-renewal, differentiation, invasion and apoptosis. Loss of m6A RNA methylation in infected host cells can lead to cancer and also other health issues including premature aging and the rise of aging related diseases.
https://molecular-cancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12943-019-1109-9
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is methylation that occurs in the N6-position of adenosine, which is the most prevalent internal modification on eukaryotic mRNA.
M6A is installed by m6A methyltransferases, removed by m6A demethylases and recognized by reader proteins, which regulate of RNA metabolism including translation, splicing, export, degradation and microRNA processing. Alteration of m6A levels participates in cancer pathogenesis and development via regulating expression of tumor-related genes like BRD4, MYC, SOCS2 and EGFR.
https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1009086
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9065606/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-020-00450-x
