Dysregulation of USP18/FTO/PYCR1 signaling network promotes bladder cancer development and progression

N6-methyladenosine refers to a methylation of adenosine base at the 6th nitrogen position, which is the dominant methylation modification in both message and non-coding RNAs. Dysregulation of RNA m6A methylation causes tumorigenesis in humans. The key N6-methyladenosine demethylase fat-mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) is negatively correlated with the overall survival of bladder cancer patients, but the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that the post-translational deubiquitination by USP18 up-regulates the protein but not mRNA of FTO in bladder cancer tissues and cells. As a result, FTO decreased N6-methyladenosine methylation level in PYCR1 through its demethylase enzymatic activity and stabilized PYCR1 transcript to promote bladder cancer initiation and progression. Our work shows the importance of N6-methyladenosine RNA modification in bladder cancer development, and highlights UPS18/FTO/PYCR1 signaling network as potential therapeutic targets of bladder cancer.