Search

DNA methylation has long been recognized as a tumor-promoting factor when aberrantly regulated in the promoter region of genes. However, the effect of intragenic DNA methylation remains poorly understood on the clinical aspects of cancer. Here, we first evaluated the significance of intragenic DNA methylation for survival outcomes of cancer patients in a genome-wide manner. Glioblastoma patients with hypermethylated intragenic regions exhibited better survival than hypomethylated patients. Enrichment analyses of intragenic DNA methylation profiles with epigenetic signatures prioritized the intragenic DNA methylation of ZMIZ1 as a possible glioblastoma prognostic marker that is independent of MGMT methylation in IDH1 wild-type patients. This intragenic region harbored molecular signatures of alternative transcription across many cell types. Furthermore, we found that the intragenic region of ZMIZ1 can serve as a molecular marker in multiple cancers including astrocytomas, bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma according to DNA methylation status. Finally, in vitro and in vivo experiments uncovered the role of ZMIZ1 as a driver of tumor cell migration. Altogether, our results identify ZMIZ1 as a prognostic marker in cancer and highlight the clinical significance of intragenic methylation in cancer.

The study of survival outliers of glioblastoma can provide important clues on gliomagenesis as well as on the ways to alter clinical course of this almost uniformly lethal cancer type. However, there has been little consensus on genetic and epigenetic signatures of the long-term survival outliers of glioblastoma. Although the two classical molecular markers of glioblastoma including isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 or 2 (IDH1/2) mutation and O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation are associated with overall survival rate of glioblastoma patients, they are not specific to the survival outliers. In this study, we compared the two groups of survival outliers of glioblastoma with IDH wild-type, consisting of the glioblastoma patients who lived longer than 3 years (n = 17) and the patients who lived less than 1 year (n = 12) in terms of genome-wide DNA methylation profile. Statistical analyses were performed to identify differentially methylated sites between the two groups. Functional implication of DNA methylation patterns specific to long-term survivors of glioblastoma were investigated by comprehensive enrichment analyses with genomic and epigenomic features. We found that the genome of long-term survivors of glioblastoma is differentially methylated relative to short-term survivor patients depending on CpG density: hypermethylation near CpG islands (CGIs) and hypomethylation far from CGIs. Interestingly, these two patterns are associated with distinct oncogenic aspects in gliomagenesis. In the long-term survival glioblastoma-specific sites distant from CGI, somatic mutations of glioblastoma are enriched with higher DNA methylation, suggesting that the hypomethylation in long-term survival glioblastoma can contribute to reduce the rate of somatic mutation. On the other hand, the hypermethylation near CGIs associates with transcriptional downregulation of genes involved in cancer progression pathways. Using independent cohorts of IDH1/2- wild type glioblastoma, we also showed that these two patterns of DNA methylation can be used as molecular markers of long-term survival glioblastoma. Our results provide extended understanding of DNA methylation, especially of DNA hypomethylation, in cancer genome and reveal clinical importance of DNA methylation pattern as prognostic markers of glioblastoma. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40478-019-0744-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundAlu is a primate-specific repeat element in the human genome and has been increasingly appreciated as a regulatory element in many biological processes. But the role of Alu has not been studied comprehensively in brain tumor because an evolutionary perspective has been the subject of little research in brain tumor. We aim to investigate the relevance of Alu to the gliomagenesis.MethodsUsing a total of 41 pairs of neurotypicial brain tissue samples and samples of diverse gliomas, we performed strand-specific RNA-seq and analyzed two Alu-associated post-transcriptional regulations, A-to-I editing and circular RNAs, and Alu expression in a genome-wide way. ResultsWe found that while both A-to-I editing and circular RNA are decreased overall in gliomas, grade 2 oligodendrogliomas do not show this same pattern of global changes. Instead, in comparison with other gliomas, oligodendrogliomas showed a higher proportion of perturbed Alu RNA. Adenosine deaminase acting on RNA 2 (ADAR2) was down-regulated in gliomas other than grade 2 oligodendrogliomas, contributing to the observed Alu-associated perturbation. ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that Alu is associated with glioma development and grade 2 oligodendroglioma exhibits a unique pattern of Alu-associated post-transcriptional regulations, which provides an insight to gliomagenesis from the perspective of an evolutionary genetic element.

BACKGROUND: The study of survival outliers of glioblastoma (GBM) can have important implications on gliomagenesis as well as in the identification of ways to alter clinical course on this almost uniformly lethal cancer type. However, current studied epigenetic and genetic signatures of the GBM outliers have failed to identify unifying criteria to characterize this unique group of patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We compared global DNA methylation patterns of IDH wild-type (IDH WT) GBM patients who lived longer than 3 years (n=17, LTS-GBM) with patients who lived less than 1 year (n=12, STS-GBM), and performed comprehensive enrichment analyses with genomic and epigenomic signatures in conjunction with available open source data. The analysis result was further validated with an independent set of 10 LTS-GBM samples. RESULTS: We found that the genome of LTS-GBM is differentially methylated relative to STS-GBM depending on CpG density: hypermethylation near CpG islands (CGIs) and hypomethylation far from CGIs. Interestingly, these two patterns are associated with distinct signature of histone mark enrichment, and oncogenic aspects in gliomagenesis. The hypomethylation pattern at the region distant from CGI is associated with H3K9me3 enrichment and lower rates of de novo mutations, while the hypermethylation at CGIs is associated with H3K27ac and correlates with transcriptional downregulation of genes involved in cancer progression pathways. CONCLUSION: These results extend our understanding of DNA methylation of survival outliers in glioblastoma in a genome-wide level and provide insight on the potential impact of DNA hypomethylation in cancer genome.

The study of survival outliers of glioblastoma (GBM) can have important implications on gliomagenesis as well as in the identification of ways to alter clinical course on this almost uniformly lethal cancer type. However, current studied epigenetic and genetic signatures of the GBM outliers have failed to identify unifying criteria to characterize this unique group of patients. In this study, we profiled the global DNA methylation pattern of mainly IDH1 wild type survival outliers of glioblastoma and performed comprehensive enrichment analyses with genomic and epigenomic signatures. We found that the genome of long-term survivors in glioblastoma is differentially methylated relative to short-term survivor patients depending on CpG density: hypermethylation near CpG islands (CGIs) and hypomethylation far from CGIs. Interestingly, these two patterns are associated with distinct oncogenic aspects in gliomagenesis. The hypomethylation pattern at the region distant from CGI is associated with lower rates of de novo mutations while the hypermethylation at CGIs correlates with transcriptional downregulation of genes involved in cancer progression pathways. These results extend our understanding of DNA methylation of survival outliers in glioblastoma in a genome-wide level, and provide insight on the potential impact of DNA hypomethylation in cancer genome.