Insights into the Regulatory Role of m⁶A Epitranscriptome in Glioblastoma

N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) is one of the most widespread and abundant internal messenger RNA modifications found in eukaryotes. Emerging evidence suggests that this modification is strongly linked to the activation and inhibition of cancer pathways and is associated with prognostically significant tumour subtypes. The present review describes the dynamic nature of m⁶A regulator enzymes, as methyltransferases, demethylases and m⁶A binding proteins, and points out thevalue of the balance among these proteins in regulating gene expression, cell metabolism and cancer development. The main focus of this review is on the roles of m⁶A modification in glioblastoma, the most aggressive and invariably lethal brain tumour. Although the study of m⁶A in glioblastoma is a young one, and papers in this field can yield divergent conclusions, the results collected so far clearly demonstrate that modulation of mRNA m⁶A levels impacts multiple aspects of this tumour, including growth, glioma stem cells self-renewal, and tumorigenesis, suggesting that mRNA m⁶A modification may serve as a promising target for glioblastoma therapy. We also present recent data about another type of epitranscriptomic modification, the methylation of cytosine at a specific site of 28S rRNA, as it was recently shown to affect the biology of glioma cells, with high potential of clinical implications.