Correlating blood-based DNA methylation markers and prostate cancer risk in African-American men

PLoS One. 2018 Sep 11;13(9):e0203322. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203322. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The objective of this work was to investigate the clinical significance of promoter gene DNA methylation changes in whole blood from African-American (AA) men with prostate cancer (PCa). We used high throughput pyrosequencing analysis to quantify percentage DNA methylation levels in a panel of 8 genes (RARβ2, TIMP3, SPARC, CDH13, HIN1, LINE1, CYB5R2 and DRD2) in blood DNA obtained from PCa and non-cancerous controls cases. Correlations of methylation status and various clinicopathological features were evaluated. Six genes tested achieved significant difference in DNA methylation levels between the PCa compared to control cases (P < 0.05). The TIMP3 loci demonstrated significant correlation of DNA methylation with age for all cases analyzed (p < 0.05). We observed an inverse correlation between CDH13 methylation (p = 0.045; r = -0.21) and serum vitamin D level whereas TIMP3 methylation (p = 0.021; r = -0.24) and DRD2 methylation (p = 0.056; r = -0.201) showed inverse correlation with supplementary vitamin D in the cancer cases. We also observed a direct correlation between methylation of RARβ2 (p = 0.0036; r = 0.293) and SPARC (p = 0.0134; r = 0.20) loci with PSA level in the controls but not the cancer cases. In addition, alcohol cases significantly correlated with higher RARβ2 methylation (p = 0.0314) in comparison with non-alcohol cases. Furthermore, we observed an inverse correlation of DRD2 methylation (p = 0.0349; r = -0.343) and Gleason score. Our data suggests that promoter methylation occurred more frequently in the blood of AA PCa and is associated with various clinicopathological features in AA men with PCa.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / blood*
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics*
  • Black or African American / genetics*
  • Cadherins / genetics
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Cytokines / genetics
  • DNA Methylation*
  • Genetic Markers
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Osteonectin / genetics
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / blood*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / pathology
  • Receptors, Dopamine D2 / genetics
  • Receptors, Retinoic Acid / genetics
  • Risk Factors
  • Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-3 / genetics
  • Tumor Suppressor Proteins / genetics
  • Vitamin D / blood

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Cadherins
  • Cytokines
  • DRD2 protein, human
  • Genetic Markers
  • H-cadherin
  • Osteonectin
  • RARB2 protein, human
  • Receptors, Dopamine D2
  • Receptors, Retinoic Acid
  • SCGB3A1 protein, human
  • SPARC protein, human
  • TIMP3 protein, human
  • Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-3
  • Tumor Suppressor Proteins
  • Vitamin D

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the Howard University Research Center in Minority Institution (RCMI) and the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC; DAMD17-03-1-0069).