Expression Rate and Gene Methylation in the Blood of People Suffering from Gastric Cancer.

BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer is one of the most important health issues in the world. Considering the lack of plenty of pre-awarenesses, the survival of gastric cancer is still quite disappointing. Methylation of gene promoter is observed in most cancer cells of a human. A study has shown that PAX5 is a new tumoral suppressor in gastric cancer and methylation of the promoter is associated with the survival rate of gastric cancer.

AIM

The present research seeks to study the expression rate and methylation of the gene in the blood of patients who have gastric cancer to be used as a biomarker in this type of cancer.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Real-time PCR technique was used to assess expression of gene, while the methylation status of gene promoter in the blood samples of people who have gastric cancer versus blood samples obtained from normal Iranian population was studied using MS PCR technique.

RESULTS

The final results pointed to the fact that expression of PAX5 in blood samples obtained from those who have gastric cancer is much less than what is observed in normal blood samples. A significant correlation was also observed between expression of this gene and age and promoter methylation rate. The results of methylation also indicated that 28% of gene promoters among patients were methylated, while all normal samples were non-methylated.

CONCLUSION

Studying the decrease observed in gene expression and the rise in promoter methylation can be utilised as a biomarker to enhance pre-awareness of gastric cancer.