m6A, METTL3 & therapy resistance

[SimonHL]

Anyone translate the possible significance of this recent paper?:

"Mapping of m6A and Its Regulatory Targets in Prostate Cancer Reveals a METTL3-low Induction of Therapy Resistance."

biorxiv.org/content/10.1101...

[AlanMeyer]

Hello SimonHL,

I have zero knowledge about N6-adenosine-methyltransferase however I do have some history of reading scientific research papers.

My guess is that the research these people are doing is very basic, meaning that it is much, much closer to the level of biochemistry than to the level of medicine. They have discovered a relationship between certain chemicals and certain cancer characteristics, but they don't yet have any solid information about how to use what they have learned to create usable, practical, treatments, and no information about what the effect of such treatment might be if and when it is developed. I suspect that, if everything they learned and everything they hypothesize is true, it could take 10-15 years before a treatment can be developed and tested.

So, as to your question about: "... the possible significance of this recent paper?" The most likely answer is that there is no practical/medical significance for at least 10 years.

Only a very, very small percentage of studies like this ever turn into treatments. I once saw a claim that the number of biochemistry studies that result in new treatments is about 1 percent. It's important that we have scientists doing this kind of research because it increases our knowledge of the causes, characteristics, and cures of cancer. Without it, all we can do is rehash the same treatment techniques over and over again. But each such study is a long shot over a long time.

Alan