Epigenetic Alteration of the Wnt Inhibitory Factor-1 Promoter Is Common and Occurs in Advanced Stage of Tunisian Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

ABSTRACT

Activation of the wingless-type (Wnt) signaling pathway is common in cancers. The Wnt inhibitory factor-1 (WIF-1) is a secreted antagonist that acts by binding to Wnt ligands. We examined by methylation-specific PCR (MSP), whether WIF-1 is inactivated in 68 nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC), and 10 normal mucosa. We showed that the WIF-1 promoter was methylated in 89.7% of tumors, whereas all normal mucosa were unmethylated. The WIF-1 methylation was associated with the tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) (p = .003) and the age (p = .014). The Wnt-5a mRNA was higher in tumors and correlated with TNM (p = .012). The methylation of WIF-1 contributes to the activation of the Wnt pathway in NPC.

Keywords: :

• Nasopharyngeal carcinoma
• WIF-1
• Wnt-5a
• Methylation-specific PCR
• Reverse PCR

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We wish to thank Prof. P Busson (France) for providing us with NPC xenograft and helpful discussion. We also thank Dr. K Benhadj for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant of the Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.