Abstract 3807: Integrative genomic profiling of pilocytic astrocytomas reveals location specific differential methylation and expression of brain developmental genes.

Abstract

Abstract Pilocytic astrocytomas (PA) are the most common brain tumor in pediatric patients and cause significant morbidity, particularly related to chronic neurological deficiencies. They are characterized by activating alterations in the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, but little else is known about their development. To map the methylation profile of these tumors, we have performed a global DNA methylation analysis on 62 PAs and 7 normal cerebellum samples using Illumina 450K microarrays. Based on these data we have found two subgroups of PA that separate according to tumor location (infratentorial versus supratentorial), and have identified key neural developmental genes that are differentially methylated between the two groups, including NR2E1 and EN2. Integration with gene expression microarray data revealed significant expression differences that were typically associated with a strong positive correlation between methylation and expression. Differential methylation was most commonly identified within the gene body and/or 10 kb upstream/downstream of the gene body, and was, in part, accounted for by differences in the level of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. We also identified a large number of differentially methylated genes between cerebellar PAs and normal cerebellum, which were again enriched for developmental genes. In addition, we found a significant association between differential methylation and SUZ12 binding sites, suggesting potential disruption of the polycomb repressor complex 2 (PRC2) in PA development. Taken together these data suggest the methylation profile of PA may reflect the cell of origin from which the tumors are derived, and highlights the potential disruption of key developmental regulators during tumorigenesis. These findings have implications for future clinical trials, as they suggest drug sensitivity and response may differ according to tumor location. Citation Format: Sally R. Lambert, Hendrik Witt, Volker Hovestadt, Manuela Zucknick, Marcel Kool, Danita Pearson, Andrey Korshnov, Stefan Pfister, V. Peter Collins, David T. W. Jones. Integrative genomic profiling of pilocytic astrocytomas reveals location specific differential methylation and expression of brain developmental genes. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3807. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3807