Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2027; 33(3): 123673
Published online Jan 21, 2027. doi: 10.3748/wjg.123673
Published online Jan 21, 2027. doi: 10.3748/wjg.123673
METTL1-mediated N7-methylguanosine modification promotes glycolysis and H4K5 lactylation-dependent Snail-1 activation in pancreatic adenocarcinoma peritoneal metastasis
Chen Yang, Chen-Zhiang Qiu, Yong Mao, Xiao-Song Ge, Fang Wang, Department of Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu Province, China
Zhi-Gang Yin, Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Chen Yang and Chen-Zhiang Qiu.
Co-corresponding authors: Xiao-Song Ge and Fang Wang.
Author contributions: Yang C and Qiu CZA contributed equally to this work, with major intellectual contributions to study design, experimental data acquisition-analysis, and manuscript drafting and revision, they are co-first authors of this manuscript. Yang C, Ge XS, and Wang F designed the research study; Mao Y, Ge XS, and Wang F supervised the study; Yang C, Qiu CZA, and Yin ZG performed most experiments, analyzed data, drafted and revised the manuscript; Ge XS and Wang F contributed equally to this manuscript and are co-corresponding authors. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
AI contribution statement: Portions of this manuscript were edited using AI tools solely for language refinement. The authors carefully reviewed and verified all AI-assisted outputs and take full responsibility for the scientific content of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University (No. LS2025036).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal experimental protocols were reviewed and approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Jiangnan University School of Medicine (Ethics approval JN. No. 20231130m0871322).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: All the data generated or analyzed in this study are included in this published article. The data are available upon request from the corresponding author.
Corresponding author: Fang Wang, PhD, Department of Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, No. 1000 Hefeng Road, Binghu District, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu Province, China. wangfang_lukas@jiangnan.edu.cn
Received: June 1, 2026
Revised: July 6, 2026
Accepted: October 8, 2026
Published online: January 21, 2027
Processing time: 172 Days and 12.2 Hours
Revised: July 6, 2026
Accepted: October 8, 2026
Published online: January 21, 2027
Processing time: 172 Days and 12.2 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: High METTL1 expression is associated with poor prognosis and peritoneal metastasis in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD). METTL1 promotes malignant phenotypes and intraperitoneal colonization by directly increasing N7-methylguanosine (m7G) modification of PKM mRNA, leading to PKM2 upregulation, enhanced glycolysis, and lactate accumulation. Elevated lactate specifically drives histone H4K5 lactylation, which activates Snail-1 transcription and sub