Abstract
Gastric cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Previous studies demonstrated that activation of STAT3 is crucial for the development and progression of gastric cancer. However, the role of STAT3 in neuronal related gene methylation in gastric cancer has never been explored. In this study, by using DNA methylation microarray, we identified a potential STAT3 target, C11orf87, showing promoter hypomethylation in gastric cancer patients with lower STAT3 activation and AGS gastric cancer cell lines depleted with STAT3 activation. Although C11orf87 methylation is independent of its expression, ectopic expression of a constitutive activated STAT3 mutant upregulated its expression in gastric cancer cell line. Further bisulfite pyrosequencing demonstrated a progressive increase in DNA methylation of this target in patient tissues from gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, to gastric cancer. Intriguingly, patients with higher C11orf87 methylation was associated with better survival. Furthermore, hypermethylation of C11orf87 was also frequently observed in other GI cancers, as compared to their adjacent normal tissues. These results suggested that C11orf87 methylation may serve as a biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of GI cancers, including gastric cancer. We further postulated that constitutive activation of STAT3 might be able to epigenetically silence C11orf87 as a possible negative feedback mechanism to protect the cells from the overactivation of STAT3. Targeted inhibition of STAT3 may not be appropriate in gastric cancer patients with promoter hypermethylation of C11orf87.
Highlights
Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide [1]
We have previously compared the methylation profile between constitutive STAT3-activated AGS gastric cancer cells, and the subline depleted of STAT3 using Illumina 850K methylation microarray [8, 9]
C11orf87 as a novel epigenetic biomarker which reside within CpG island were showed in black circle
Summary
Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide [1]. Infection with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a gram-negative bacteria, is an important risk factor for gastric cancer [2]. We further identified a putative STAT3 target, C11orf87, showing differential hypomethylation in gastric cancer cell lines and patient samples with lower STAT3 activation status.
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