Wang Xiao-Xiong, Xiao Fu-Hui, Li Qi-Gang, Liu Jia, He Yong-Han, Kong Qing-Peng
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.
Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650204, China.
Oncotarget. 2017 Feb 14;8(7):11868-11876. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.14417.
Tumorigenesis is linked to the role of DNA methylation in gene expression regulation. Yet, cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease in which the global pattern of DNA methylation and gene expression, especially across diverse cancers, is not well understood. We investigated DNA methylation status and its association with gene expressions across 12 solid cancer types obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Results showed that global hypermethylation was an important characteristic across all 12 cancer types. Moreover, there were more epigenetically silenced than epigenetically activated genes across the cancers. Further analysis identified epigenetically silenced genes shared in the calcium-signaling pathway across the different cancer types. Reversing the aberrant DNA methylation of genes involved in the calcium-signaling pathway could be an effective strategy for suppressing cancers and developing anti-cancer drugs.
肿瘤发生与DNA甲基化在基因表达调控中的作用相关。然而，癌症是一种高度异质性的疾病，其中DNA甲基化和基因表达的整体模式，尤其是在不同癌症中的情况，尚未得到充分了解。我们研究了从癌症基因组图谱获得的12种实体癌类型的DNA甲基化状态及其与基因表达的关联。结果表明，整体高甲基化是所有12种癌症类型的一个重要特征。此外，在所有癌症中，表观遗传沉默的基因比表观遗传激活的基因更多。进一步分析确定了不同癌症类型中钙信号通路中共享的表观遗传沉默基因。逆转参与钙信号通路的基因的异常DNA甲基化可能是抑制癌症和开发抗癌药物的有效策略。
