Such occurrences often lead to the silencing of these key genes and thus they may contribute to the development of cancer, including prostate cancer. In order to identify methylation changes in prostate cancer, we performed a genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation using Agilent human CpG island arrays.
Using computational and gene-specific validation approaches we have identified a large number of potential epigenetic biomarkers of prostate cancer. Further validation of candidate genes on a separate cohort of low and high grade prostate cancers by quantitative MethyLight analysis has allowed us to confirm DNA hypermethylation of HOXD3 and BMP7 , two genes that may play a role in the development of high grade tumours. We also show that promoter hypermethylation is responsible for downregulated expression of these genes in the DU PCa cell line.
This study identifies novel epigenetic biomarkers of prostate cancer and prostate cancer progression, and provides a global assessment of DNA methylation in prostate cancer. Editor: Mikhail V. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Prostate cancer PCa is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and the second leading cause of cancer associated with deaths in the US [1]. Studies have shown that PCa is a complex disease impacted by genetic and non-genetic epidemiological factors, and early diagnosis is critical in the clinical management of the disease.
A common pathological variable given during of the prostate tumour, with higher scores reflecting poorly differentiated carcinoma. Epigenetic modifications have been shown to affect gene expression patterns and often contribute to the pathogenesis of many cancers [4].
