• DOI:10.1186/s12885-017-3482-3
• Corpus ID: 4725612

Quantitation of DNA methylation in Epstein-Barr virus–associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma by bisulfite amplicon sequencing

@article{Zhao2017QuantitationOD,
  title={Quantitation of DNA methylation in Epstein-Barr virus–associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma by bisulfite amplicon sequencing},
  author={Weilin Zhao and Yingxi Mo and Shumin Wang and Kaoru Midorikawa and Ning Ma and Yusuke Hiraku and Shinji Oikawa and Guangwu Huang and Zhe Zhang and Mariko Murata and Kazuhiko Takeuchi},
  journal={BMC Cancer},
  year={2017},
  volume={17}
}

• Weilin Zhao, Yingxi Mo, +8 authors K. Takeuchi
• Published 17 July 2017
• Biology, Medicine
• BMC Cancer

BackgroundEpigenetic changes, including DNA methylation, disrupt normal cell function, thus contributing to multiple steps of carcinogenesis. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is endemic in southern China and is highly associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. Significant changes of the host cell methylome are observed in EBV-associated NPC with cancer development. Epigenetic marks for NPC diagnosis are urgently needed. In order to explore DNA methylation marks, we investigated DNA methylation of candidate genes in EBV-associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma.MethodsWe first employed methyl-capture sequencing and cDNA microarrays to compare the genome-wide methylation profiles of seven NPC tissues and five non-cancer nasopharyngeal epithelium (NNE) tissues. We found 150 hypermethylated CpG islands spanning promoter regions and down-regulated genes. Furthermore, we quantified the methylation rates of seven candidate genes using bisulfite amplicon sequencing for nine NPC and nine NNE tissues.ResultsAll seven candidate genes showed significantly higher methylation rates in NPC than in NNE tissues, and the ratios (NPC/NNE) were in descending order as follows: ITGA4 > RERG > ZNF671 > SHISA3 > ZNF549 > CR2 > RRAD. In particular, methylation levels of ITGA4, RERG, and ZNF671 could distinguish NPC patients from NNE subjects.ConclusionsWe identified the DNA methylation rates of previously unidentified NPC candidate genes. The combination of genome-wide and targeted methylation profiling by next-generation sequencers should provide useful information regarding cancer-specific aberrant methylation.