N 6 -methyladenosine enhances the expression of TGF-β-SMAD signaling family to inhibit cell growth and promote cell metastasis.

TGF-β-SMAD signaling pathway plays an important role in the progression of various cancers. However, posttranscriptional regulation such as N ⁶ -methyladenosine (m ⁶ A) of TGF-β-SMAD signaling axis remains incompletely understood. Here, we reveal that insulin like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein 2 (IGF2BP2) is low expression as well as associated with poor prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients and inhibits proliferation as well as promotes metastasis of ccRCC cells. Mechanistically, IGF2BP2 systematically regulates TGF-β-SMAD signaling family, including TGF-β1/2, TGF-βR1/2 and SMAD2/3/4, through mediating their mRNA stability in an m ⁶ A-dependent manner. Furthermore, the functional effects of IGF2BP2 on ccRCC cells is mediated by TGF-β-SMAD signaling downstream effector SMAD4, which is identified three m ⁶ A sites in 5'UTR and CDS. Our study establishes IGF2BP2-TGF-β-SMAD axis as a new regulatory effector in ccRCC, providing new insights for developing novel therapeutic strategies.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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