Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Second Clinical Medical College (Shenzhen People's Hospital), Jinan University, Shenzhen, 518020, People's Republic of China.
Department of Gynecological Oncology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510120, People's Republic of China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jul 24;7(1):6271. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-06502-7.
Methylation alterations of specific genes have recently been identified as diagnostic biomarkers for human cancers. Although MEG3 has been proved to be a tumor suppressor in cervical cancer according to our previous study, the diagnostic value of MEG3 methylation in plasma is still unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify a novel epigenetic biomarker for cervical cancer. In the current study, the level of MEG3 methylation was evaluated using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. The results showed that the level of MEG3 methylation was significantly higher in cervical cancer tissues and patients' plasmas than those in adjacent normal tissues and plasmas of healthy participants respectively. Moreover, the accuracy was good enough for MEG3 methylation in plasma to discriminate CIN III patients from healthy participants. In addition, MEG3 methylation in plasma also has high discriminating power to predict HR-HPV infection and lymph node metastasis. Furthermore, hypermethylation of MEG3 in plasma was associated with worse recurrence-free and overall survival in cervical cancer patients. In conclusions, MEG3 methylation in plasma can serve as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for cervical cancer, providing useful information for clinical management.
近年来，特定基因的甲基化改变已被确定为人类癌症的诊断生物标志物。虽然根据我们之前的研究，MEG3 已被证明是宫颈癌的肿瘤抑制因子，但 MEG3 甲基化在血浆中的诊断价值尚不清楚。因此，本研究旨在确定一种新的宫颈癌表观遗传生物标志物。在本研究中，采用甲基化特异性聚合酶链反应评估 MEG3 甲基化水平。结果表明，与相邻正常组织和健康参与者的血浆相比，宫颈癌组织和患者血浆中的 MEG3 甲基化水平显著升高。此外，MEG3 血浆甲基化在区分 CIN III 患者和健康参与者方面具有足够好的准确性。此外，血浆中 MEG3 的甲基化也具有很高的区分能力，可预测 HR-HPV 感染和淋巴结转移。此外，血浆中 MEG3 的高甲基化与宫颈癌患者无复发生存和总生存不良相关。总之，血浆中的 MEG3 甲基化可作为宫颈癌的诊断和预后生物标志物，为临床管理提供有用信息。
