New insights on the interplays between m 6 A modifications and microRNA or lncRNA in gastrointestinal cancers.

N-Methyladenosine (mA) methylation is one of the most extremely examined RNA modifications. MA modification evidently impacts cancer development by effecting RNA metabolism. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in multiple essential biological processes by regulating gene expression at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Accumulated evidences indicated that mA is involved in regulating the cleavage, stability, structure, transcription, and transport of lncRNAs or miRNAs. Additionally, ncRNAs also play significant roles in modulating mA levels of malignant cells by participating in the regulation of mA methyltransferases, the mA demethylases and the mA binding proteins. In this review, we systematically summarize the new insight on the interactions between mA and lncRNAs or miRNAs, as well as their impacts on gastrointestinal cancer progression. Although there are still extensive studies on genome-wide screening of crucial lncRNAs or miRNAs involved in regulating mA levels of mRNAs and disclosing differences on mechanisms of regulating mA modification of lncRNAs, miRNAs or mRNAs in cancer cells, we believe that targeting mA-related lncRNAs and miRNAs may provide novel options for gastrointestinal cancer treatments.