HOXA1 3′UTR Methylation Is a Potential Prognostic Biomarker in Oral Squamous cell Carcinoma

Background: HOXA1 is a prognostic marker and a potential predictive biomarker for radioresistance in head and neck tumors. Its overexpression has been associated with promoter methylation and a worse prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. However, opposite outcomes are also descr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancers 2024-03, Vol.16 (5), p.874
Main Authors: Sorroche, Bruna Pereira, Miranda, Keila Cristina, Beltrami, Caroline Moraes, Arantes, Lidia Maria Rebolho Batista, Kowalski, Luiz Paulo, Marchi, Fabio Albuquerque, Rogatto, Silvia Regina, Almeida, Janete Dias
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3' Untranslated regions
Biomarkers
Cancer
CpG islands
DNA methylation
Epigenetics
Gene expression
Genomes
Head & neck cancer
Head and neck carcinoma
HOXA1 protein
Medical prognosis
Oral carcinoma
Oral cavity
Oral squamous cell carcinoma
Patients
Prognosis
Radioresistance
Tumor cells
Tumors
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background: HOXA1 is a prognostic marker and a potential predictive biomarker for radioresistance in head and neck tumors. Its overexpression has been associated with promoter methylation and a worse prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. However, opposite outcomes are also described. The effect of the methylation of this gene on different gene regions, other than the promoter, remains uncertain. We investigated the methylation profile at different genomic regions of HOXA1 in OSCC and correlated differentially methylated CpG sites with clinicopathological data. Methods: The HOXA1 DNA methylation status was evaluated by analyzing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and three Gene Expression Omnibus datasets. Significant differentially methylated CpG sites were considered with a |∆β| ≥ 0.10 and a Bonferroni-corrected p-value < 0.01. Differentially methylated CpGs were validated by pyrosequencing using two independent cohorts of 15 and 47 OSCC patients, respectively. Results: Compared to normal tissues, we found significantly higher DNA methylation levels in the 3′UTR region of HOXA1 in OSCC. Higher methylation levels in tumor samples were positively correlated with smoking habits and patients’ overall survival. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that HOXA1 gene body methylation is a promising prognostic biomarker for OSCC with potential clinical applications in patient monitoring.
ISSN:2072-6694
2072-6694
DOI:10.3390/cancers16050874