Systematic identification of genes with a cancer-testis expression pattern in 19 cancer types.
Cheng WangYayun GuKai ZhangKaipeng XieMeng ZhuNingbin DaiYue JiangXue-Jiang GuoMingxi LiuJuncheng DaiLinxiang WuGuangfu JinHongxia MaTao JiangRong YinYankai XiaLi LiuShouyu WangBin ShenRan HuoQianghu WangLin XuLiuqing YangXingxu HuangHongbing ShenJiahao ShaZhibin HuPublished in: Nature communications (2016)
Cancer-testis (CT) genes represent the similarity between the processes of spermatogenesis and tumorigenesis. It is possible that their selective expression pattern can help identify driver genes in cancer. In this study, we integrate transcriptomics data from multiple databases and systematically identify 876 new CT genes in 19 cancer types. We explore their relationship with testis-specific regulatory elements. We propose that extremely highly expressed CT genes (EECTGs) are potential drivers activated through epigenetic mechanisms. We find mutually exclusive associations between EECTGs and somatic mutations in mutated genes, such as PIK3CA in breast cancer. We also provide evidence that promoter demethylation and close non-coding RNAs (namely, CT-ncRNAs) may be two mechanisms to reactivate EECTG gene expression. We show that the meiosis-related EECTG (MEIOB) and its nearby CT-ncRNA have a role in tumorigenesis in lung adenocarcinoma. Our findings provide methods for identifying epigenetic-driver genes of cancer, which could serve as targets of future cancer therapies.
Keyphrases
- papillary thyroid
- gene expression
- squamous cell
- genome wide
- dna methylation
- computed tomography
- bioinformatics analysis
- poor prognosis
- magnetic resonance
- contrast enhanced
- image quality
- lymph node metastasis
- electronic health record
- genome wide identification
- climate change
- binding protein
- current status
- copy number
- big data
- human health
- breast cancer risk