title: The role of PAQR3 gene promoter hypermethylation in breast cancer and prognosis.
abstract: PAQR3 is a tumor suppressor in breast cancer and its expression regulation mechanism has not been well elucidated. In this study, we found that PAQR3 expression was downregulated in breast cancer tissues, and the downregulation of PAQR3 expression was found to be significantly associated with aberrant methylation of the gene promoter. Methylation‑specific PCR showed that hypermethylation of the PAQR3 gene was observed in 71.8% of the breast cancers, whereas it was found in only 28.2% of the corresponding non‑tumor tissues. Moreover, we found that the PAQR3 promoter methylation status was related to lymph node metastasis (P=0.01). In addition, overexpression of PAQR3 inhibited breast cancer cell invasion and growth. Furthermore, PAQR3 expression was restored in MCF‑7 cells after treatment with the demethylating agent, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine, and the effect of demethylation induced invasion and proliferation suppression of MCF‑7 cells. Collectively, our results suggested that the aberrant methylation of PAQR3 underlies its downregulation in breast cancer and our data indicated that epigenetic silencing of PAQR3 gene expression by promoter hypermethylation may play an important role in breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jinpeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Feiran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Junfei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhixian
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yuhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D015153:Blotting, Western; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D011379:Prognosis; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C532354:PAQR3 protein, human