Genome-Wide Methylation and Expression Profiling Identify Methylation-Associated Genes in Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Aim: To identify methylation-associated genes in the carcinogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Materials & methods: Genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation and gene expression in CRC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were determined and further validated in The Cancer Genome Atlas data and Chinese CRC patients, respectively. Gene overexpression and knockdown cells were constructed to investigate their biological roles in CRC. Results: After validations, hypermethylation of eight genes were found to be correlated with their reduced transcription, and hypomethyaltion of three genes were associated with their upregulation. CADM3, CNRIP1, GRHL2, GRIA4, GSTM2 and NRXN1 were associated with the overall survival of CRC patients. CNRIP1 and GSTM2 were mainly responsible for the proliferation in CRC cells. Conclusion: A total of 11 genes may be promising biomarkers for CRC.

Keywords::

• biomarker
• colorectal cancer
• differential methylation region
• differentially expressed genes
• DNA methylation

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.comhttp://doi/suppl/10.2217/epi-2019-0133

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by the grants from National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant number: 2017YFC0907004). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the grants from National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant number: 2017YFC0907004). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.