Development of a sensitive epigenomic biomarker for urothelial cancer

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K15584
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Urology
• Research Institution: Sapporo Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Hiromu 札幌医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (20381254)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MASUMORI Naoya 札幌医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (20295356)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 膀胱がん / DNAメチル化 / miRNA / 診断マーカー / 再発予測

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It is now apparent that BCa is a genetic and epigenetic disease, and that aberrant methylation of a number of tumor-related genes is involved in BCa. Moreover, several studies have shown that urinary DNA methylation may be a useful marker for BCa diagnosis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are small noncoding RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression, have also been strongly implicated in BCa. We identified a set of miRNA genes whose promoter CpG islands are prevalently hypermethylated in BCa cells. We prospectively collected self-voided urine samples from non-muscle invasive BCa (NMIBC) who had undergone transurethral resection of BCa. We found that the number of methylated genes (M-score) and quantitative levels of methylation in the urine specimens are strongly associated with current and late intravesical recurrence of BCa. Our data suggest that urinary methylation of miRNA genes may be a useful marker for detecting and predicting BCa recurrence.

Free Research Field

分子腫瘍学