scholarly journals Pan-Cancer Analysis of DNA Methylation Identifies Genes and Biological Functions Associated with Overall Survival

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romola Grace Cavet ◽  
Peng Yue ◽  
Guy Lawrence Cavet

DNA methylation influences gene expression and is altered in many cancers, but the relationship between DNA methylation and cancer outcomes is not yet fully understood. If methylation of specific genes is associated with better or worse outcomes, it could implicate genes in driving cancer and suggest therapeutic strategies. To advance our understanding of DNA methylation in cancer biology, we conducted a pan-cancer analysis of the relationship between methylation and overall survival. Using data on 28 tumor types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we identified genes and genomic regions whose methylation was recurrently associated with survival across multiple cancer types. While global DNA methylation levels are associated with outcome in some cancers, we found that the gene-specific associations were largely independent of these global effects. Genes with recurrent associations across cancer types were enriched for certain biological functions, such as immunity and cell-cell adhesion. While these recurrently associated genes were found throughout the genome, they were enriched in certain genomic regions, which may further implicate certain gene families and gene clusters in affecting survival. By finding common features across cancer types, our results link DNA methylation to patient outcomes, identify biological mechanisms that could explain survival differences, and support the potential value of treatments that modulate the methylation of tumor DNA.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (17) ◽  
pp. 6087
Author(s):  
Yunzhen Wei ◽  
Limeng Zhou ◽  
Yingzhang Huang ◽  
Dianjing Guo

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA)/microRNA(miRNA)/mRNA triplets contribute to cancer biology. However, identifying significative triplets remains a major challenge for cancer research. The dynamic changes among factors of the triplets have been less understood. Here, by integrating target information and expression datasets, we proposed a novel computational framework to identify the triplets termed as “lncRNA-perturbated triplets”. We applied the framework to five cancer datasets in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project and identified 109 triplets. We showed that the paired miRNAs and mRNAs were widely perturbated by lncRNAs in different cancer types. LncRNA perturbators and lncRNA-perturbated mRNAs showed significantly higher evolutionary conservation than other lncRNAs and mRNAs. Importantly, the lncRNA-perturbated triplets exhibited high cancer specificity. The pan-cancer perturbator OIP5-AS1 had higher expression level than that of the cancer-specific perturbators. These lncRNA perturbators were significantly enriched in known cancer-related pathways. Furthermore, among the 25 lncRNA in the 109 triplets, lncRNA SNHG7 was identified as a stable potential biomarker in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) by combining the TCGA dataset and two independent GEO datasets. Results from cell transfection also indicated that overexpression of lncRNA SNHG7 and TUG1 enhanced the expression of the corresponding mRNA PNMA2 and CDC7 in LUAD. Our study provides a systematic dissection of lncRNA-perturbated triplets and facilitates our understanding of the molecular roles of lncRNAs in cancers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yahui Shi ◽  
Jinfen Wei ◽  
Zixi Chen ◽  
Yuchen Yuan ◽  
Xingsong Li ◽  
...  

Background. Cancer cells undergo various rewiring of metabolism and dysfunction of epigenetic modification to support their biosynthetic needs. Although the major features of metabolic reprogramming have been elucidated, the global metabolic genes linking epigenetics were overlooked in pan-cancer. Objectives. Identifying the critical metabolic signatures with differential expressions which contributes to the epigenetic alternations across cancer types is an urgent issue for providing the potential targets for cancer therapy. Method. The differential gene expression and DNA methylation were analyzed by using the 5726 samples data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Results. Firstly, we analyzed the differential expression of metabolic genes and found that cancer underwent overall metabolism reprogramming, which exhibited a similar expression trend with the data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Secondly, the regulatory network of histone acetylation and DNA methylation according to altered expression of metabolism genes was summarized in our results. Then, the survival analysis showed that high expression of DNMT3B had a poorer overall survival in 5 cancer types. Integrative altered methylation and expression revealed specific genes influenced by DNMT3B through DNA methylation across cancers. These genes do not overlap across various cancer types and are involved in different function annotations depending on the tissues, which indicated DNMT3B might influence DNA methylation in tissue specificity. Conclusions. Our research clarifies some key metabolic genes, ACLY, SLC2A1, KAT2A, and DNMT3B, which are most disordered and indirectly contribute to the dysfunction of histone acetylation and DNA methylation in cancer. We also found some potential genes in different cancer types influenced by DNMT3B. Our study highlights possible epigenetic disorders resulting from the deregulation of metabolic genes in pan-cancer and provides potential therapy in the clinical treatment of human cancer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Cheng ◽  
Xiaowei Wang ◽  
Kechao Nie ◽  
Lin Cheng ◽  
Zheyu Zhang ◽  
...  

Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-2 (TREM2) is a transmembrane receptor of the immunoglobulin superfamily and a crucial signaling hub for multiple pathological pathways that mediate immunity. Although increasing evidence supports a vital role for TREM2 in tumorigenesis of some cancers, no systematic pan-cancer analysis of TREM2 is available. Thus, we aimed to explore the prognostic value, and investigate the potential immunological functions, of TREM2 across 33 cancer types. Based on datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas, and the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia, Genotype Tissue-Expression, cBioPortal, and Human Protein Atlas, we employed an array of bioinformatics methods to explore the potential oncogenic roles of TREM2, including analyzing the relationship between TREM2 and prognosis, tumor mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), DNA methylation, and immune cell infiltration of different tumors. The results show that TREM2 is highly expressed in most cancers, but present at low levels in lung cancer. Further, TREM2 is positively or negatively associated with prognosis in different cancers. Additionally, TREM2 expression was associated with TMB and MSI in 12 cancer types, while in 20 types of cancer, there was a correlation between TREM2 expression and DNA methylation. Six tumors, including breast invasive carcinoma, cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma, kidney renal clear cell carcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma, skin cutaneous melanoma, and stomach adenocarcinoma, were screened out for further study, which demonstrated that TREM2 gene expression was negatively correlated with infiltration levels of most immune cells, but positively correlated with infiltration levels of M1 and M2 macrophages. Moreover, correlation with TREM2 expression differed according to T cell subtype. Our study reveals that TREM2 can function as a prognostic marker in various malignant tumors because of its role in tumorigenesis and tumor immunity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kangpei Tao ◽  
Jaim Sutton ◽  
James M. Flanagan

Abstract Background: Alcohol consumption, body mass index (BMI) and cigarette smoking are among the most well-studied lifestyle cancer risk exposures which can also change the host’s epigenetic methylation patterns. Some of the changes associated with lifestyle exposure are specific and stable over time, thus, can be used to predict and quantify the exposure. Although the link between these lifestyle exposures and increased odds ratio (OR) of different cancer types is well known, their role in predicting cancer survival remains less clear. We hypothesized that by using predicted lifestyle exposures based on the methylation profiles in tumour DNA we could predict the overall survival probability in cancer patients associated with these exposures. Results: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Pan-Cancer dataset was used to test the prognostic value of the predicted DNAmethylation (DNAm) alcohol, BMI and smoking exposures in 24 cancer types (n= 8,238 subjects). Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models with adjustment for age, cancer stage and other exposures were used to calculate the hazards ratio (HR) for overall survival associated with these predicted DNAm exposures. We observed specific cancer types with strong associations between poorer survival and higher alcohol consumption (bladder, brain, esophageal, and head and neck cancers), higher BMI (bladder, pancreatic and post-menopausal breast cancers), and smoking (B-cell lymphoma, stomach, bladder and lung cancers). Interestingly, we also observed associations between better survival from kidney cancer with higher alcohol consumption and smoking exposures. For alcohol consumption we found a positive association between HR and OR across all cancers, indicating that for cancers where alcohol is a significant risk factor, it is also associated with poorer survival (p = 0.022). This was not the case for the BMI (p = 0.548) or smoking exposures (p = 0.193). Conclusions: In conclusion, these DNAm exposure signatures may provide novel information on the relationship between these lifestyle factors and cancer outcomes.


2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Chen ◽  
Yumei Fan ◽  
Xiaopeng Liu ◽  
Jianhua Zhang ◽  
Yanan Shang ◽  
...  

Heat shock factor 2 (HSF2), a transcription factor, plays significant roles in corticogenesis and spermatogenesis by regulating various target genes and signaling pathways. However, its expression, clinical significance and correlation with tumor-infiltrating immune cells across cancers have rarely been explored. In the present study, we comprehensively investigated the expression dysregulation and prognostic significance of HSF2, and the relationship with clinicopathological parameters and immune infiltration across cancers. The mRNA expression status of HSF2 was analyzed by TCGA, GTEx, and CCLE. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression were applied to explore the prognostic significance of HSF2 in different cancers. The relationship between HSF2 expression and DNA methylation, immune infiltration of different immune cells, immune checkpoints, tumor mutation burden (TMB), and microsatellite instability (MSI) were analyzed using data directly from the TCGA database. HSF2 expression was dysregulated in the human pan-cancer dataset. High expression of HSF2 was associated with poor overall survival (OS) in BRCA, KIRP, LIHC, and MESO but correlated with favorable OS in LAML, KIRC, and PAAD. The results of Cox regression and nomogram analyses revealed that HSF2 was an independent factor for KIRP, ACC, and LIHC prognosis. GO, KEGG, and GSEA results indicated that HSF2 was involved in various oncogenesis- and immunity-related signaling pathways. HSF2 expression was associated with TMB in 9 cancer types and associated with MSI in 5 cancer types, while there was a correlation between HSF2 expression and DNA methylation in 27 types of cancer. Additionally, HSF2 expression was correlated with immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoint genes, and the tumor immune microenvironment in various cancers, indicating that HSF2 could be a potential therapeutic target for immunotherapy. Our findings revealed the important roles of HSF2 across different cancer types.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaonan Liu ◽  
Pei Wang ◽  
Xufei Teng ◽  
Zhang Zhang ◽  
Shuhui Song

BackgroundN6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most abundant chemical modification on eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNA), is modulated by three class of regulators namely “writers,” “erasers,” and “readers.” Increasing studies have shown that aberrant expression of m6A regulators plays broad roles in tumorigenesis and progression. However, it is largely unknown regarding the expression regulation for RNA m6A regulators in human cancers.ResultsHere we characterized the expression profiles of RNA m6A regulators in 13 cancer types with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data. We showed that METTL14, FTO, and ALKBH5 were down-regulated in most cancers, whereas YTHDF1 and IGF2BP3 were up-regulated in 12 cancer types except for thyroid carcinoma (THCA). Survival analysis further revealed that low expression of several m6A regulators displayed longer overall survival times. Then, we analyzed microRNA (miRNA)-regulated and DNA methylation-regulated expression changes of m6A regulators in pan-cancer. In total, we identified 158 miRNAs and 58 DNA methylation probes (DMPs) involved in expression regulation for RNA m6A regulators. Furthermore, we assessed the survival significance of those regulatory pairs. Among them, 10 miRNAs and 7 DMPs may promote cancer initiation and progression; conversely, 3 miRNA/mRNA pairs in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) may exert tumor-suppressor function. These findings are indicative of their potential prognostic values. Finally, we validated two of those miRNA/mRNA pairs (hsa-miR-1307-3p/METTL14 and hsa-miR-204-5p/IGF2BP3) that could serve a critical role for potential clinical application in KIRC patients.ConclusionsOur findings highlighted the importance of upstream regulation (miRNA and DNA methylation) governing m6A regulators’ expression in pan-cancer. As a result, we identified several informative regulatory pairs for prognostic stratification. Thus, our study provides new insights into molecular mechanisms of m6A modification in human cancers.


F1000Research ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 182
Author(s):  
Rafael Sebastián Fort ◽  
María Ana Duhagon

Background: The vault RNAs (vtRNAs) are a class of 84-141-nt eukaryotic non-coding RNAs transcribed by RNA polymerase III, associated to the ribonucleoprotein complex known as vault particle. Of the four human vtRNA genes, vtRNA1-1, vtRNA1-2 and vtRNA1-3, clustered at locus 1, are integral components of the vault particle, while vtRNA2-1 is a more divergent homologue located in a second locus. Gene expression studies of vtRNAs in large cohorts have been hindered by their unsuccessful sequencing using conventional transcriptomic approaches. Methods: VtRNA expression in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Pan-Cancer cohort was estimated using the genome-wide DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility data (ATAC-seq) of their genes as surrogate variables. The association between vtRNA expression and patient clinical outcome, immune subtypes and transcriptionally co-regulated gene programs was analyzed in the dataset. Results: VtRNA1-1 has the most accessible chromatin, followed by vtRNA1-2, vtRNA2-1 and vtRNA1-3. Although the vtRNAs are co-regulated by transcription factors related to viral infection, vtRNA2-1 is the most independently regulated homologue. VtRNA1-1 and vtRNA1-3 chromatin status does not significantly change in cancer tissues. Meanwhile, vtRNA2-1 and vtRNA1-2 expression is widely deregulated in neoplastic tissues and its alteration is compatible with a broad oncogenic role for vtRNA1-2, and both tumor suppressor and oncogenic functions for vtRNA2-1. Yet, vtRNA1-1, vtRNA1-2 and vtRNA2-1 promoter DNA methylation predicts a shorter patient overall survival cancer-wide. In addition, gene ontology analyses of vtRNAs co-regulated genes identify a chromosome regulatory domain, epithelial differentiation, immune and thyroid cancer gene sets for specific vtRNAs. Furthermore, vtRNA expression patterns are associated with cancer immune subtypes and vtRNA1-2 expression is positively associated with cell proliferation and wound healing. Conclusions: Our study presents the landscape of vtRNA expression cancer-wide, identifying co-regulated gene networks and ontological pathways associated with the different vtRNA genes that may account for their diverse roles in cancer.


F1000Research ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 182
Author(s):  
Rafael Sebastián Fort ◽  
María Ana Duhagon

Background: The vault RNAs (vtRNAs) are a class of 84-141-nt eukaryotic non-coding RNAs transcribed by RNA polymerase III, associated to the ribonucleoprotein complex known as vault particle. Of the four human vtRNA genes, vtRNA1-1, vtRNA1-2 and vtRNA1-3, clustered at locus 1, are integral components of the vault particle, while vtRNA2-1 is a more divergent homologue located in a second locus. Gene expression studies of vtRNAs in large cohorts have been hindered by their unsuccessful sequencing using conventional transcriptomic approaches. Methods: VtRNA expression in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Pan-Cancer cohort was estimated using the genome-wide DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility data (ATAC-seq) of their genes as surrogate variables. The association between vtRNA expression and patient clinical outcome, immune subtypes and transcriptionally co-regulated gene programs was analyzed in the dataset. Results: VtRNAs promoters are enriched in transcription factors related to viral infection. VtRNA2-1 is likely the most independently regulated homologue. VtRNA1-1 has the most accessible chromatin, followed by vtRNA1-2, vtRNA2-1 and vtRNA1-3. VtRNA1-1 and vtRNA1-3 chromatin status does not significantly change in cancer tissues. Meanwhile, vtRNA2-1 and vtRNA1-2 expression is widely deregulated in neoplastic tissues and its alteration is compatible with a broad oncogenic role for vtRNA1-2, and both tumor suppressor and oncogenic functions for vtRNA2-1. Yet, vtRNA1-1, vtRNA1-2 and vtRNA2-1 promoter DNA methylation predicts a shorter patient overall survival cancer-wide. In addition, gene ontology analyses of vtRNAs co-regulated genes identify a chromosome regulatory domain, epithelial differentiation, immune and thyroid cancer gene sets for specific vtRNAs. Furthermore, vtRNA expression patterns are associated with cancer immune subtypes and vtRNA1-2 expression is positively associated with cell proliferation and wound healing. Conclusions: Our study presents the landscape of vtRNA chromatin status cancer-wide, identifying co-regulated gene networks and ontological pathways associated with the different vtRNA genes that may account for their diverse roles in cancer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minde Li ◽  
Shaoyang Li ◽  
Lin Zhou ◽  
Le Yang ◽  
Xiao Wu ◽  
...  

BackgroundMatrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14) is a member of the MMP family, which interacts with tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMPs), and is involved in normal physiological functions such as cell migration, invasion, metastasis, angiogenesis, and proliferation, as well as tumor genesis and progression. However, there has been a lack of relevant reports on the effect of MMP14 across cancers. This study aims to explore the correlation between MMP14 and pan-cancer prognosis, immune infiltration, and the effects of pan-cancer gene mismatch repair (MMR), microsatellite instability (MSI), tumor mutational burden (TMB), DNA methylation, and immune checkpoint genes.MethodsIn this study, we used bioinformatics to analyze data from multiple databases, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), ONCOMINE, and Kaplan–Meier plotter. We investigated the relationship between the expression of MMP14 in tumors and tumor prognosis, the relationship between MMP14 expression and tumor cell immune infiltration, and the relationship between MMR gene MMR, MSI, TMB, DNA methylation, and immune checkpoint genes.ResultsMMP14 expression is highly associated with the prognosis of a variety of cancers and tumor immune invasion and has important effects on pan oncologic MMR, MSI, TMB, DNA methylation, and immune checkpoint genes.ConclusionMMP14 is highly correlated with tumor prognosis and immune invasion and affects the occurrence and progression of many tumors. All of these results fully indicate that MMP14 may be a biomarker for the prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment of many tumors and provide new ideas and direction for subsequent tumor immune research and treatment strategies.


Author(s):  
Gang Liu ◽  
Zhenhao Liu ◽  
Xiaomeng Sun ◽  
Xiaoqiong Xia ◽  
Yunhe Liu ◽  
...  

DNA methylation dysregulation during carcinogenesis has been widely discussed in recent years. However, the pan-cancer DNA methylation biomarkers and corresponding biological mechanisms were seldom investigated. We identified differentially methylated sites and regions from 5,056 The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) samples across 10 cancer types and then validated the findings using 48 manually annotated datasets consisting of 3,394 samples across nine cancer types from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). All samples’ DNA methylation profile was evaluated with Illumina 450K microarray to narrow down the batch effect. Nine regions were identified as commonly differentially methylated regions across cancers in TCGA and GEO cohorts. Among these regions, a DNA fragment consisting of ∼1,400 bp detected inside the HOXA locus instead of the boundary may relate to the co-expression attenuation of genes inside the locus during carcinogenesis. We further analyzed the 3D DNA interaction profile by the publicly accessible Hi-C database. Consistently, the HOXA locus in normal cell lines compromised isolated topological domains while merging to the domain nearby in cancer cell lines. In conclusion, the dysregulation of the HOXA locus provides a novel insight into pan-cancer carcinogenesis.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document