Fig. 9. The proposed model of hypoxia-related m6A modification induced pancreatic cancer cell glycolysis and metastasis via the ALKBH5-HDAC4-HIF1α-positive feedback loop.
The expression of ALKBH5 was increased under hypoxic conditions which led to increased stability of HDAC4 mRNA via m6A modification and in a YTHDF2 dependent manner. Increased HDAC4 enhanced HIF1a protein stability. And then overexpressed HIF1a promoted transcription of ALKBH5, LDHA, HK2, GLUT1 and GLUT3. Therefore, ALKBH5/HDAC4/HIF1α form a positive feedback loop, which then induces a more glycolytic metabolism and migration of PC cells under hypoxia.