Identification of novel DNA methylation markers in cervical cancer.
Testing for DNA methylation has potential in cancer screening. Most previous studies of DNA methylation in cervical cancer used a candidate gene approach. The aim our study was to identify novel genes that are methylated in cervical cancers and to test their potential in clinical applications. We did a differential methylation hybridization using a CpG island (CGI) microarray containing 8640 CGI tags to uncover methylated genes in squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the uterine cervix. Pooled DNA from cancer tissues and normal cervical swabs were used for comparison. Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction, bisulfite sequencing and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were used to confirm the methylation status in cell lines, normal cervices (n = 45), low-grade lesions (n = 45), high-grade lesions (HSIL; n = 58) and invasive squamous cell carcinomas (SCC; n = 22 from swabs and n = 109 from tissues). Human papillomavirus (HPV) was detected using reverse line blots. We reported 6 genes (SOX1, PAX1, LMX1A, NKX6-1, WT1 and ONECUT1) more frequently methylated in SCC tissues (81.5, 94.4, 89.9, 80.4, 77.8 and 20.4%, respectively) than in their normal controls (2.2, 0, 6.7, 11.9, 11.1 and 0%, respectively; p < 0.0001). Parallel testing of HPV and PAX1 methylation in cervical swabs confers an improved sensitivity than HPV testing alone (80% vs. 66%) without compromising specificity (63% vs. 64%) for HSIL/SCC. Testing PAX1 methylation marker alone, the specificity for HSIL/SCC is 99%. The analysis of these novel DNA methylations may be a promising approach for the screening of cervical cancers.
Lai
Hung-Cheng
HC
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. hclai@ndmctsgh.edu.tw
Lin
Ya-Wen
YW
Huang
Tim H M
TH
Yan
Pearlly
P
Huang
Rui-Lan
RL
Wang
Hui-Chen
HC
Liu
Joseph
J
Chan
Michael W Y
MW
Chu
Tang-Yuan
TY
Sun
Chien-An
CA
Chang
Cheng-Chang
CC
Yu
Mu-Hsien
MH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics; D019175:DNA Methylation; D015344:DNA Probes, HPV; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D051761:Paired Box Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D040081:Protein Array Analysis; D012107:Research Design; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013447:Sulfites; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015344:DNA Probes, HPV; D051761:Paired Box Transcription Factors; D013447:Sulfites; C070835:PAX1 transcription factor; C042345:hydrogen sulfite