Genome ‐wide DNA methylation analysis by MethylRad and the transcriptome profiles reveal the potential cancer‐related lncRNAs in colon cancer

This study provided novel therapy targets and valuable insights into molecular mechanism in tu morigenesis and development of CC. AbstractColon cancer (CC) is characterized by global aberrant DNA methylation that may affect gene expression and genomic stability. A series of studies have demonstrated that DNA methylation could regulate the expressions of not only protein ‐coding genes but also ncRNAs. However, the regulatory role of lncRNA genes methylaton in CC remains largely unknown. In the present study, we systemically characterize the profile of DNA methylation, especially the aberrant methylation of lncRNAs genes using MethylRAD technology. A total of 132  999 CCGG/8487 CCWGG sites were identified as differentially methylated sites (DMSs), which were mainly located on the introns and intergenic elements. Moreover, 1,359 CCGG/1,052 CCWGG differentially methylated genes (DMGs) were screened. Our results demonstrated that aberrant methylation of lncRNA g enes occurred most frequently, accounting for 37.5% and 44.3% in CCGG and CCWGG DMGs respectively. In addition, 963 lncRNA DMGs were co‐analyzed with 1328 differentially expressed lncRNAs which were identified from TCGA database. We found that 15 lncRNAs might be CC‐related lncRNAs. ZNF667‐AS1 and MAFA‐AS1 were down‐regulated in CC, which might be silenced by hypermethylation. Besides, 13 lncRNAs were hypomethylated and up‐regulated in CC. Moreover, our results validated the expression and methylation level ...
Source: Cancer Medicine - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL RESEARCH Source Type: research