Effect Of Methylation Inhibitors Research Articles

Abstract 2443: miR-146a methylation regulates proliferation and metastasis by targeted activation of VASN/TGF-beta signaling pathway in colorectal cancer

Abstract Tumor specific alterations in miRNA provide ideal biomarkers for early diagnosis of colorectal cancer(CRC). Methylation changes play an important role in the miRNA regulation mechanism involved in tumorigenesis. Therefore, it is important to find miRNA methylation markers related to tumor proliferation and metastasis, and to explore its key regulatory mechanisms. Previous integrated bioinformatics analysis suggested that reduced expression and hypermethation of miR-146a have detected in majority of CRC. However, its biological behavior in CRC remains unclear. This article aims to explore its epigenetic regulation and mechanism in the development of CRC. We collected peripheral blood and tissues from 60 patients with advanced primary CRC, analyzed their clinicopathological characteristics. The mRNA and methylation difference was detected by qPCR and MSP respectively, and the significance in the diagnosis of CRC was analyzed. The research was further confirmed in SW480, SW620, HCT116 and HT29 CRC cell lines, as well as CRC animal models treated with demethylated drugs–5-aza-miR2-oxyeytidineine(5-AZA) and various gene transfection, in order to explore the key downstream regulatory network of miR-146a methylation changes and the effect of methylation inhibitors in the development of CRC. We found that the percentage of down-regulated and methylation of miR-146a in both tissues and plasmas of CRC was significantly higher than that of normal samples, and the expression of miR-146a could be recovered after demethylation treatment in cancer, which was associated with clinical stage. miR-146a methylation was significantly correlated with grading, but not gender, tumor location, histological type or TNM, it may be used as a predictor of poor prognosis. Diagnostic evaluation of miR-146a methylation in tissue and plasma was evaluated using ROC curve, area under regional curve, which indicated that miR-146a methylation could be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis of CRC. Fluorescein report system showed that miR-146a targeted VASN protein, and while miR-146a was overexpressed after transfection into CRC cells, the expression levels of VASN, TGF-β, VEGF-C, MMP9, and Vimentin were significantly reduced, while the expression of TIMP1 and Ecadherin were up-regulated. Additionally, the miR-146a mRNA in CRC tissues was also negatively correlated with the expression of VASN. VASN Silencing down-regulated TGF-β expression, accompanied by a decrease of MMP9. At the same time, after 5-aza demethylation or siVASN, proliferation activity of CRC cells decreased, accompanied by varying degrees of decline in membrane penetrating and migration ability, suggesting that miR-146a may regulate the proliferation and metastasis by regulating VASN/TGF-β relatived pathway. In vivo animal models, it was further confirmed that overexpressed miR-146a was consistent with the effect of 5-aza intervention or siVASN, which could significantly inhibit the occurrence of liver metastasis of CRC. Demethylated drugs treatment or VASN knockdown also significantly inhibited tumor growth in nude mice with CRC. miR-146a was a potential epigenetic silencing tumor suppressor in CRC, and the methylation of miR-146a may play an important role in the diagnosis and prediction of tumor progression in CRC as a new tumor marker. Citation Format: Weiwei Tang, Dan Zhou, Hanxiang An, Jiapeng Kang, Mingquan Cai, Ru Zeng, Jing Song, Bin Hu, Jiabian Lian, Qin Lin, Lilin Chen, Feng Ye. miR-146a methylation regulates proliferation and metastasis by targeted activation of VASN/TGF-beta signaling pathway in colorectal cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 2443.

Methylation Changes of Primary Tumors, Monolayer, and Spheroid Tissue Culture Environments in Malignant Melanoma and Breast Carcinoma.

Epigenetic changes have major role in the normal development and programming of gene expression. Aberrant methylation results in carcinogenesis. The primary objective of our study is to determine whether primary tumor tissue and cultured tumor cells in 2D and 3D tissue culture systems have the same methylation signature for PAX5, TMPRSS2, and SBDS. These findings will play an important role in developing in vitro model system to understand the effect of methylation inhibitors on primary tumor tissue. In a previous study PAX5, TMPRSS2, and SBDS genes that we are investigating were reported to be methylated more than 60% in breast cancer and malignant melanoma cell lines. However, these genes have never been studied in primary tumor tissues. Thus, primary tumor tissues of breast cancer and malignant melanoma were first grown in 2D and 3D cultures. Then these two types of tumor tissues and their 2D and 3D cultures were investigated for changes considering methylation levels in PAX5, TMPRSS2, and SBDS genes using real-time polymerase chain reaction. No differences were observed in the primary tissues and culture systems for both PAX5 and TMPRSS2 in malignant melanoma tissues. We found that PAX5 gene was an efficient marker to measure the effects of methylation inhibitors for in vitro systems for malignant melanoma tissue.

Effects of DNA methylation inhibitor 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine on biological behavior of esophageal squamous carcinoma cells

Objective To investigate the effects of methylation inhibitor 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-Aza-dC) on biological behavior of esophageal squamous carcinoma cell (ESCC) lines KYSE140 and KYSE150. Methods KYSE140 and KYSE150 cell lines were divided into the blank group, the control group and the experimental group. The cells in the blank group didn't do the treatment, and the cells in the control group were added to DMSO 2 μmol/L, while in the experimental group, cells were treated with different concentration (1, 2, 3 and 4 μmol/L) of 5-Aza-dC which affected respectively at different time (24, 48, 72 and 96 h). Cell proliferation was detected by using methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay and the optimal drug concentration and time point were selected. Transwell assay was performed to detect the change of cell migration and invasion. Flow cytometry was used to observe the effects of drugs on cell apoptosis and cell cycle. The expression of PARP, Caspase-3, CCNB-1, and CCNE-1 were detected by Western blot. Results MTT result showed that the effective function time of 5-Aza-dC on KYSE140 and KYSE150 was 96 h at the concentration of 4 μmol/L. Under this condition, the cell ability of migration and invasion was decreased significantly. The migrated cell number of KYSE140 and KYSE150 respectively in the blank group, the control group and the experimental group was (193.3±8.6), (184.0±10.4), (61.7±7.1) and (112.0±6.4), (101.3±7.9), (26.3±5.7). The invasive cell number was (47.3±7.3), (38.7±5.1), (8.0±3.9) and (83.3±6.8), (74.7±5.7), (21.0±2.7), respectively. The difference was statistically significant (P <0.05). Flow cytometry revealed that 5-Aza-dC increased the apoptosis of KYSE140 and KYSE150. The apoptosis rate of the blank group, the control group and the experimental group was (2.8±0.3)%, (11.2±0.7)%, (18.6±0.6)% for KYSE140 and (2.7±0.4)%, (9.8±0.4)%, (17.7±0.5)% for KYSE150. Compared with the other two groups, the cell number of G2/M phase in the experimental group was increased remarkably (P < 0.05). PARP and Caspase-3 were sheared evidently and the protein expression of CCNB-1 was up-regulated while the expression of CCNE-1 was down-regulated in the experimental group. Conclusion 5-Aza-dC can inhibit the proliferation and promote apoptosis of ESCC cells. Key words: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; DNA Methylation; 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine; Apoptosis; Cell cycle

Effect of methylation inhibitor in the treatment of leukemia

More and more studies have found that the occurrence of tumors are directly related to the abnormal expression of oncogene and antioncogene. If the antioncogene is mutated or absent, the function of cells will be weakened and inactivated, the cells will be duplicated repeatedly out of control, then will induce occurrence and metastasis of tumor. For example, SHP-1 tyrosine phosphatase, as an antioncogene, is a key negative regulator in signaling transduction of haematopoietic cells. The decrease and silence of SHP-1 play an important role in tumorigenesis. If the oncogene in leukemia patients lost the effect of negative regulation of antioncogene, the oncogene would be expressed abnormally high, such as the oncogene c-kit (an important member of the class III in the tyrosine kinase receptor family) in many kinds of leukemia cells expresses actively. Studies have shown that the high methylation of promoter region would induce the inactivation of tumor suppressor and active expression of oncogene, therefore, the restoring normal methylation of promoter region will contribute to restoration of normal gene expression, thus achieving the purpose of gene therapy for leukemia. In this article, the methylation, methylation abnormality and leukemia, methylation suppressors and therapy of leukemia are briefly reviewed.

Effect of methylation inhibitor on demethylation pattern of the PD-1 gene in promoter region and PD-1 expression in human T lymphocyte cell line

To observe the demethylation effect of demethylation inhibitor 5-azacytidine (5-Zac) on programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) in Molt-4 cells (T lymphocyte cell line) and to investigate the relationship between DNA demethylation and expression of PD-1. Molt-4 cells were cultured in the medium containing different concentrations of 5-Zac(0, 5, 10 μmol/L) for 72 h. According to the concentrations of 5-Zac, the Molt-4 cells were divided into a 0 μmol/L 5-Zac group, a 5 μmol/L 5-Zac group, and a 10 μmol/L 5-Zac group. The expression of PD-1 in Molt-4 cells was detected by flow cytometry and the apoptosis rate was calculated. The mRNA transcription level of PD-1 was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction; Molt-4 cell DNA in all groups were treated by sodium bisulfite. The PD-1 promoter fragment was amplified by PCR, the amplification fragments were transformed into E. coli., the positive clones were selected for equencing, and the methylation status of the fragments of PD-1 promoter was examined. RESULTS Seventy-two hours after the 5-Zac treatment, the expression rate of PD-1 in the Molt-4 cells in the 0 μmol/L 5-Zac group, the 5 μmol/L 5-Zac group, and the 10 μmol/L 5-Zac group was (1.13 ± 0.01)%, (18.96 ± 1.87)%, and (63.09 ± 6.25)% respectively, in a low concentration-dependent way. The PD-1 mRNA expression level was increased significantly with the 5-Zac treatment. Cells apoptosis showed that:compared with the 0 μmol/L 5-Zac group, the apoptosid rate in the 5 μmol/L 5-Zac group and 10 μmol/L 5-Zac group was signficantly increased, which was (1.9 ± 0.06)%, (8.89 ± 1.36)%, and (24.50 ± 3.68)% in the 0 μmol/L 5-Zac group, the 5 μmol/L 5-Zac group, and the 10 μmol/L 5-Zac mol/L group respectively. The bisulfite genomic sequencing showed that the demethylation probability of CpG points on -601 bp and -553 bp was significantly increased in the 5-Zac treated cells compared with those untreated. 5-Zac can result in the increase of PD-1 expression in the human lymphoid cell series Molt-4 in vitro, and the apoptosis rate increases, which is related to PD-1 gene promoter demethylation.

Effect of methylation inhibitors on gene expression in HL-60 cells.

The methylation inhibitors Neplanocin A (Nep A), 3'-deazaadenosine (dzAdo), and 3-deaza(+/-)aristeromycin (Dari) were tested for their effect on the expression of histone H2B, actin, and the protooncogenes c-myc, and v-fos. Nep A and Dari bind to the S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase resulting in the accumulation of S-adenosylhomocysteine, while dzAdo served as a substrate for the enzyme. With dzAdo, inordinant amounts of 3-deazaadenosylhomocysteine (dzAdoHcy) accumulated in the cell, provided L-homocysteine (Hcy) was present. When added at sublethal concentrations, the methylation inhibitors had little or no effect on c-myc, v-fos, histone H2B, or actin expression, nor did any significant number of the drug-treated cells demonstrate myeloid characteristics. However, growth and gene expression were markedly inhibited upon the addition of Hcy and dzAdo. One of the earliest effects of dzAdoHcy on HL-60 cells was the disappearance of c-myc mRNA. Within 1 h of the addition of dzAdo and Hcy, only trace amounts of c-myc mRNA were detectable. After 4-5 h v-fos, histone H2B, and actin mRNAs also decreased to about 40% of control levels. Differences in the stability of preexisting mRNAs would appear to account for these results. Within 1 h following the addition of dzAdo and Hcy, the synthesis of rRNA and mRNA were completely blocked as measured by the incorporation of [3H]uridine.

The effect of methylation inhibitors on citreamicin biosynthesis in Micromonospora citrea.

When the citreamicin-producing organism Micromonospora citrea NRRL 189351 was incubated in the presence of the methylation inhibitors sinefungin or aminopterin, biosynthesis of the zeta component was stimulated approximately 20 to 200-fold above the level normally produced. Inhibition of a second methylation reaction, which is superficially very similar to the first, was not detected. Other known methylation inhibitors failed to yield any change in the natural pattern of citreamicins produced. This approach is an excellent route for preparing citreamicin zeta, which can be used as a substrate for semi-synthesis or for further biosynthetic studies.