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Query: UMLS:C0027651 (tumor)
 685,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Epigenetic profiling of tumor DNAs may reveal important new theranostic targets to improve prognosis and treatment of advanced cancer patients. In this study, we performed a genome-wide profile of DNA methylation patterns in sporadic breast tumors by using the HumanMethylation27 BeadChips to assess relationships between DNA methylation changes and patient tumor characteristics. The arrays identified 264 hypermethylated loci/genes present in genomic CpG islands. Hierarchical clustering based on methylation levels divided the specimens into three distinct groups, within which certain clinical features also clustered. Statistically significant differences were determined between overall methylation levels of these clusters and estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor (ER/PR) status (P = 0.001), tumor relapse (P = 0.035), and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.042). We identified several individual methylated genes associated with clinical features, including six genes (RECK, SFRP2, UAP1L1, ACADL, ITR, and UGT3A1) that showed statistical significance between methylation and relapse-free survival. Notably, the RECK gene in this group has been associated in other cancers with poorest prognosis. Among the leading relapse-associated genes and the genes associated with ER/PR status, we sequenced an independent set of paired normal/tumor breast DNA samples to confirm tumor specificity of methylation. Further, we carried out quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR to confirm reduced expression in methylated tumors. Our findings suggest the utility for the DNA methylation patterns in these genes as clinically useful surrogate markers in breast cancer, as well as new molecular pathways for further investigation as therapeutic targets.
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PMID:Genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of CpG islands in breast cancer identifies novel genes associated with tumorigenicity. 2136 12

Aged hepatocyte-specific-Mcl-1 knockout (MKO-hep) mice are prone to develop liver tumors mimicking human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here we reported that a protein named UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase-1-like-1 (Uap1l1) is upregulated in the liver of young MKO-hep mice without any macroscopically detectable tumor nodules and is prominently expressed in the hepatic tumors developed in the aged MKO-hep mice. Intriguingly, human UAP1L1 is also significantly upregulated in a distinct subset of HCC tissues and patients with upregulated expression of UAP1L1 appeared to have poor prognosis. Overexpression of UAP1L1 significantly promoted, whereas UAP1L1 knockdown markedly reduced the proliferation of human hepatoma cells both in vitro and in vivo. UAP1L1 shows ~59% sequence identity to UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase-1 (UAP1), which is directly involved in the synthesis of the sugar donor (UDP-GlcNac) for N-acetylglucosamine modification (O-GlcNAcylation) of proteins. However, unlike UAP1, UAP1L1 harbors very limited UDP-GlcNAc synthesis activity. Moreover, although both UAP1 and UAP1L1 are required for O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT)-mediated protein O-GlcNAcylation, they appear to function distinctly from each other. UAP1L1 directly interacts with OGT, but does not seem to be an OGT substrate. In addition, UAP1L1 alone is not sufficient to activate OGT activity in vitro, suggesting that UAP1L1 may function together with other proteins to modulate OGT activity in vivo. Lastly, UAP1L1 knockdown attenuated c-MYC O-GlcNAcylation and protein stability, and overexpression of c-MYC significantly rescued the proliferation defect of UAP1L1 knockdown HepG2 cells, suggesting that c-MYC is one downstream target of UAP1L1 that contributes to UAP1L1-mediated cell proliferation, at least in HepG2 cells.
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PMID:Identification of UAP1L1 as a critical factor for protein O-GlcNAcylation and cell proliferation in human hepatoma cells. 3009 6