TY - JOUR AB - N6‑methyladenosine (m6A) RNA modification regulates multiple biological functions. Methyltransferase like 3 (METTL3), one of the major N6‑methyltransferases, is highly expressed in gastric cancer, but its potential role in disease is unclear. The current study knocked out METTL3 (METTL3‑KO) in human gastric cancer AGS cells using CRISPR/Cas9. METTL3‑KO AGS cells exhibited decreased m6A methylation levels. A significant inhibition of cell proliferation was observed in METTL3‑KO AGS cells. Silencing METTL3 in AGS cells altered the expression profile of many effector molecules that were previously demonstrated to serve key roles in AGS cell proliferation, including the suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) family of proteins. The results further demonstrated that SOCS2 upregulation in METTL3‑KO AGS cells was associated with a decreased RNA decay rate. Furthermore, SOCS2 KO or SOCS2 overexpression caused a significant increase and decrease in AGS cell proliferation, respectively. The current data suggested that METTL3‑KO in gastric cancer cells resulted in the suppression of cell proliferation by inducing SOCS2, suggesting a potential role of elevated METTL3 expression in gastric cancer progression. AD - Department of Geriatrics, Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430071, P.R. China Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE 68178, USA AU - Jiang,Li AU - Chen,Ting AU - Xiong,Li AU - Xu,Ji‑Hao AU - Gong,Ai‑Yu AU - Dai,Bin AU - Wu,Ganlin AU - Zhu,Kenny AU - Lu,Eugene AU - Mathy,Nicholas ,William AU - Chen,Xian‑Ming DA - 2020/09/01 DO - 10.3892/ol.2020.11794 EP - 2198 IS - 3 JO - Oncol Lett KW - m6A modification methyltransferase like 3 suppressor of cytokine signaling 2 gastric cancer cell proliferation PY - 2020 SN - 1792-1074 1792-1082 SP - 2191 ST - Knockdown of m6A methyltransferase METTL3 in gastric cancer cells results in suppression of cell proliferation T2 - Oncology Letters TI - Knockdown of m6A methyltransferase METTL3 in gastric cancer cells results in suppression of cell proliferation UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2020.11794 VL - 20 ER -