Detection of aberrant methylated SEPT9 and NTRK3 genes in sporadic colorectal cancer patients as a potential diagnostic biomarker.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies, and the third leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Timely detection of CRC in patients with earlier stages provides the highest rate of survival. Epigenetic alterations are important in the occurrence and progression of CRC, and represent the primary modifications of cancer cells. Therefore, detection of these alterations in CRC cases are thought to hold great promise as diagnostic biomarkers. It has been shown that the and genes are aberrantly methylated and their detection can be used as biomarkers for early diagnosis of CRC. The present study analyzed promoter methylation status of these genes in CRC patients. Genomic DNA was extracted from 45 CRC and paired adjacent healthy tissues and undergone bisulfite conversion, and the methylation status of and were defined using the MS-HRM assay. Our results showed that there are statistically significant differences in methylation status of and specially between CRC and adjacent normal tissues (P<0.001). High sensitivity and specificity for a specific location in gene promoter as a diagnostic biomarker was observed. promoter hypermethylation may serve as a promising biomarker for the detection of CRC development. However, to validate the biomarker potential of there is a requirement for further investigation.