1 3647 135 INCREASED REELIN PROMOTER METHYLATION IS ASSOCIATED WITH GRANULE CELL DISPERSION IN HUMAN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY. MESIAL TEMPORAL SCLEROSIS (MTS) IS THE MOST COMMON LESION IN CHRONIC, INTRACTABLE TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSIES (TLE) AND CHARACTERIZED BY SEGMENTAL NEURONAL CELL LOSS IN MAJOR HIPPOCAMPAL SEGMENTS. ANOTHER HISTOPATHOLOGICAL HALLMARK INCLUDES GRANULE CELL DISPERSION (GCD), AN ARCHITECTURAL DISTURBANCE OF THE DENTATE GYRUS ENCOUNTERED IN APPROXIMATELY 50% OF PATIENTS WITH MESIAL TEMPORAL SCLEROSIS. REELIN, WHICH PLAYS A KEY ROLE DURING HIPPOCAMPAL DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF LAMINAR ORGANIZATION, IS SYNTHESIZED AND RELEASED BY CAJAL-RETZIUS CELLS OF THE DENTATE MOLECULAR LAYER, AND PREVIOUS STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT REELIN TRANSCRIPT LEVELS ARE DOWNREGULATED IN HUMAN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSIES SPECIMENS. TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER EPIGENETIC SILENCING BY REELIN PROMOTER METHYLATION MAY BE AN UNDERLYING PATHOGENETIC MECHANISM OF GCD, DNA WAS HARVESTED FROM 3 MICRODISSECTED HIPPOCAMPAL SUBREGIONS (I.E. MOLECULAR AND GRANULE CELL LAYERS OF THE DENTATE GYRUS AND PRESUBICULUM) FROM 8 MTS SPECIMENS WITH GCD, 5 TLE SAMPLES WITHOUT GCD, AND 3 AUTOPSY CONTROLS. PROMOTER METHYLATION WAS ANALYZED AFTER BISULFITE TREATMENT, CLONING, AND DIRECT SEQUENCING; IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY WAS PERFORMED TO IDENTIFY CAJAL-RETZIUS CELLS. REELIN PROMOTER METHYLATION WAS FOUND TO BE GREATER IN TLE SPECIMENS THAN IN CONTROLS; PROMOTER METHYLATION CORRELATED WITH GCD AMONG TLE SPECIMENS (P < 0.0002). NO OTHER CLINICAL OR HISTOPATHOLOGICAL PARAMETER (I.E. SEX, AGE, SEIZURE DURATION, MEDICATION OR EXTENT, OF MTS) CORRELATED WITH PROMOTER METHYLATION. THESE DATA SUPPORT A COMPROMISED REELIN-SIGNALING PATHWAY AND IDENTIFY PROMOTER METHYLATION AS AN EPIGENETIC MECHANISM IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF TLE. 2009 2 2654 39 EPILEPSY PROGRESSION IS ASSOCIATED WITH CUMULATIVE DNA METHYLATION CHANGES IN INFLAMMATORY GENES. MESIAL TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY WITH HIPPOCAMPAL SCLEROSIS (MTLE-HS) IS THE MOST COMMON FOCAL EPILEPSY IN ADULTS. IT IS CHARACTERIZED BY ALARMING RATES OF PHARMACORESISTANCE. EPILEPTOGENESIS IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE OCCURRENCE OF EPIGENETIC ALTERATIONS, AND THE FEW EPIGENETIC STUDIES CARRIED OUT IN MTLE-HS HAVE MAINLY FOCUSED ON THE HIPPOCAMPUS. IN THIS STUDY, WE OBTAINED THE DNA METHYLATION PROFILES FROM BOTH THE HIPPOCAMPUS AND ANTERIOR TEMPORAL NEOCORTEX OF MTLE-HS PATIENTS SUBJECTED TO RESECTIVE EPILEPSY SURGERY AND AUTOPSIED NON-EPILEPTIC CONTROLS. WE ASSESSED THE PROGRESSIVE NATURE OF DNA METHYLATION CHANGES IN RELATION TO EPILEPSY DURATION. WE IDENTIFIED SIGNIFICANTLY ALTERED HIPPOCAMPAL DNA METHYLATION PATTERNS ENCOMPASSING MULTIPLE PATHWAYS KNOWN TO BE INVOLVED IN EPILEPTOGENESIS. DNA METHYLATION CHANGES WERE EVEN MORE STRIKING IN THE NEOCORTEX, WHEREIN PATHOGENIC PATHWAYS AND GENES WERE COMMON TO BOTH TISSUES. MOST IMPORTANTLY, DNA METHYLATION CHANGES AT MANY GENOMIC SITES VARIED SIGNIFICANTLY WITH EPILEPSY DURATION. SUCH PROGRESSIVE CHANGES WERE ASSOCIATED WITH INFLAMMATION-RELATED GENES IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS. OUR RESULTS SUGGEST THAT THE NEOCORTEX, RELATIVELY SPARED OF EXTENSIVE HISTOPATHOLOGICAL DAMAGE, MAY ALSO BE INVOLVED IN EPILEPSY DEVELOPMENT. THESE RESULTS ALSO OPEN THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE OBSERVED NEOCORTICAL IMPAIRMENT COULD REPRESENT A PRELIMINARY STAGE OF EPILEPTOGENESIS BEFORE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRONIC LESIONS OR A CONSEQUENCE OF PROLONGED SEIZURE EXPOSURE. OUR TWO-TISSUE MULTI-LEVEL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MTLE-HS DNA METHYLOME SUGGESTS THE OCCURRENCE OF A SELF-PROPAGATING INFLAMMATORY WAVE OF EPIGENETIC DYSREGULATION. 2022 3 1425 41 DIFFERENTIAL DNA METHYLATION PROFILES OF CODING AND NON-CODING GENES DEFINE HIPPOCAMPAL SCLEROSIS IN HUMAN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY. TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY IS ASSOCIATED WITH LARGE-SCALE, WIDE-RANGING CHANGES IN GENE EXPRESSION IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS. EPIGENETIC CHANGES TO DNA ARE ATTRACTIVE MECHANISMS TO EXPLAIN THE SUSTAINED HYPEREXCITABILITY OF CHRONIC EPILEPSY. HERE, THROUGH METHYLATION ANALYSIS OF ALL ANNOTATED C-PHOSPHATE-G ISLANDS AND PROMOTER REGIONS IN THE HUMAN GENOME, WE REPORT A PILOT STUDY OF THE METHYLATION PROFILES OF TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY WITH OR WITHOUT HIPPOCAMPAL SCLEROSIS. FURTHERMORE, BY COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EXPRESSION AND PROMOTER METHYLATION, WE IDENTIFY METHYLATION SENSITIVE NON-CODING RNA IN HUMAN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY. A TOTAL OF 146 PROTEIN-CODING GENES EXHIBITED ALTERED DNA METHYLATION IN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY HIPPOCAMPUS (N = 9) WHEN COMPARED TO CONTROL (N = 5), WITH 81.5% OF THE PROMOTERS OF THESE GENES DISPLAYING HYPERMETHYLATION. UNIQUE METHYLATION PROFILES WERE EVIDENT IN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY WITH OR WITHOUT HIPPOCAMPAL SCLEROSIS, IN ADDITION TO A COMMON METHYLATION PROFILE REGARDLESS OF PATHOLOGY GRADE. GENE ONTOLOGY TERMS ASSOCIATED WITH DEVELOPMENT, NEURON REMODELLING AND NEURON MATURATION WERE OVER-REPRESENTED IN THE METHYLATION PROFILE OF WATSON GRADE 1 SAMPLES (MILD HIPPOCAMPAL SCLEROSIS). IN ADDITION TO GENES ASSOCIATED WITH NEURONAL, NEUROTRANSMITTER/SYNAPTIC TRANSMISSION AND CELL DEATH FUNCTIONS, DIFFERENTIAL HYPERMETHYLATION OF GENES ASSOCIATED WITH TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION WAS EVIDENT IN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY, BUT OVERALL FEW GENES PREVIOUSLY ASSOCIATED WITH EPILEPSY WERE AMONG THE DIFFERENTIALLY METHYLATED. FINALLY, A PANEL OF 13, METHYLATION-SENSITIVE MICRORNA WERE IDENTIFIED IN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY INCLUDING MIR27A, MIR-193A-5P (MIR193A) AND MIR-876-3P (MIR876), AND THE DIFFERENTIAL METHYLATION OF LONG NON-CODING RNA DOCUMENTED FOR THE FIRST TIME. THE PRESENT STUDY THEREFORE REPORTS SELECT, GENOME-WIDE DNA METHYLATION CHANGES IN HUMAN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY THAT MAY CONTRIBUTE TO THE MOLECULAR ARCHITECTURE OF THE EPILEPTIC BRAIN. 2015 4 2755 39 EXPRESSION OF CLASS II HISTONE DEACETYLASES IN TWO MOUSE MODELS OF TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY. EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS LIKE ALTERED HISTONE ACETYLATION MAY HAVE A CRUCIAL ROLE IN EPILEPTOGENESIS. IN TWO MOUSE MODELS OF TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY, WE INVESTIGATED CHANGES IN THE EXPRESSION OF CLASS II HISTONE DEACETYLASES (HDAC), A GROUP OF SIGNAL TRANSDUCERS THAT SHUTTLE BETWEEN NUCLEUS AND CYTOPLASM. INTRAHIPPOCAMPAL INJECTION OF KAINIC ACID (KA) INDUCED A STATUS EPILEPTICUS, DEVELOPMENT OF SPONTANEOUS SEIZURES (AFTER 3 DAYS), AND FINALLY CHRONIC EPILEPSY AND GRANULE CELL DISPERSION. EXPRESSION OF CLASS II HDAC MRNAS WAS INVESTIGATED AT DIFFERENT TIME INTERVALS AFTER KA INJECTION IN THE GRANULE CELL LAYERS AND IN SECTORS CA1 AND CA3 CONTRALATERAL TO THE SITE OF KA INJECTION LACKING NEURODEGENERATION. INCREASED EXPRESSION OF HDAC5 AND 9 MRNAS COINCIDED WITH PRONOUNCED GRANULE CELL DISPERSION IN THE KA-INJECTED HIPPOCAMPUS AT LATE INTERVALS (14-28 DAYS AFTER KA) AND EQUALLY AFFECTED BOTH HDAC9 SPLICE VARIANTS. IN CONTRAST, IN THE PILOCARPINE MODEL (SHOWING NO GRANULE CELL DISPERSION), WE OBSERVED DECREASES IN THE EXPRESSION OF HDAC5 AND 9 AT THE SAME TIME INTERVALS. BEYOND THIS, STRIKING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN BOTH TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY MODELS SUCH AS FAST DECREASES IN HDAC7 AND 10 MRNAS DURING THE ACUTE STATUS EPILEPTICUS WERE OBSERVED, NOTABLY ALSO IN THE CONTRALATERAL HIPPOCAMPUS NOT AFFECTED BY NEURODEGENERATION. THE PARTICULAR PATTERNS OF HDAC MRNA EXPRESSION SUGGEST A ROLE IN EPILEPTOGENESIS AND GRANULE CELL DISPERSION. REDUCED EXPRESSION OF HDACS MAY RESULT IN INCREASED EXPRESSION OF PRO- AND ANTICONVULSIVE PROTEINS. ON THE OTHER HAND, EXPORT OF HDACS FROM THE NUCLEUS INTO THE CYTOPLASM COULD ALLOW FOR DEACETYLATION OF CYTOPLASMATIC PROTEINS INVOLVED IN AXONAL AND DENDRITIC REMODELING, LIKE GRANULE CELL DISPERSION. HDAC 5 AND HDAC 9 EXPRESSION IS HIGHLY INCREASED IN GRANULE CELLS OF THE KA-INJECTED HIPPOCAMPUS AND PARALLELS GRANULE CELL DISPERSION. BOTH HDACS ARE THOUGHT TO BE TARGETED TO THE CYTOPLASM AND TO ACT THERE BY DEACETYLATING CYTOPLASMATIC (E.G. CYTOSCELETON-RELATED) PROTEINS. 2016 5 510 32 ASSOCIATION OF RASGRF1 METHYLATION WITH EPILEPTIC SEIZURES. DNA METHYLATION, ONE OF THE MECHANISMS OF EPIGENETIC REGULATION, HAS BEEN SUGGESTED TO BE RELATED WITH EPILEPSY. RASGRF1 IS A PATERNALLY IMPRINTED GENE AND HAS A DIFFERENTIALLY METHYLATED REGION (DMR) AT THE PROMOTER THAT CAN SILENCE GENE EXPRESSION. WE HAVE PREVIOUSLY OBSERVED THE DOWN-REGULATION OF RASGRF1 IN THE TEMPORAL NEOCORTEX OF EPILEPSY PATIENTS AND IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS OF EPILEPTIC ANIMALS. HERE, WE FURTHER EXPLORED THE DYNAMIC CHANGE (1-DAY ACUTE PERIOD, 10-DAY LATENT PERIOD AND 45-DAY CHRONIC PHASE) OF DNA METHYLATION AND RASGRF1 EXPRESSION AFTER ACUTE EPILEPTIC SEIZURES IN KAINIC ACID (KA)-TREATED MICE, AND WE OBSERVED THE IMPACT OF N-PHTHALYL-L-TRYPTOPHAN (RG108), A DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE (DNMT) INHIBITOR, ON AN ACUTE EPILEPTIC MODEL BY POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION (PCR), WESTERN BLOTTING, AND BISULFITE SEQUENCING PCR (BSP). THE RESULTS DIRECTLY SHOWED THAT THE METHYLATION OF THE RASGRF1 PROMOTER GRADUALLY INCREASED AND REACHED A MAXIMAL LEVEL AT THE LATENT PERIOD, WITH SUBSEQUENT SUPPRESSION OF RASGRF1 MRNA AND PROTEIN EXPRESSION LEVELS, WHICH REACHED A MINIMUM LEVEL IN THE CHRONIC PHASE. RG108 INHIBITED THE INCREASED METHYLATION OF THE RASGRF1 GENE, WITH SIGNIFICANT INHIBITION OCCURRING AT THE LATENT PERIOD, AND RESTORED RASGRF1 EXPRESSION LEVELS IN THE CHRONIC PHASE. IN ADDITION, WE DEMONSTRATED THAT RG108 COULD SUPPRESS ACUTE EPILEPTIC SEIZURES IN KA-TREATED MICE AND EPILEPTIC DISCHARGES IN 4-AMINOPYRIDINE (4-AP)-TREATED HIPPOCAMPAL SLICES. THESE FINDINGS DEMONSTRATE THAT RASGRF1 IS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH EPILEPSY VIA THE ABERRANT METHYLATION OF RASGRF1, AND REGULATING THE METHYLATION STATUS OF RELEVANT GENES MIGHT BE AN INTRIGUING TOPIC IN FUTURE RESEARCH ON EPILEPSY. 2017 6 1718 26 DYSREGULATED LONG NON-CODING RNAS IN THE TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY MOUSE MODEL. PURPOSE: TO PERFORM COMPREHENSIVE PROFILING OF LONG NON-CODING RNAS (LNCRNAS) IN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY. METHODS: WE PERFORMED EXTENSIVE PROFILING OF LNCRNAS AND MRNAS IN THE MOUSE PILOCARPINE MODEL IN SPECIFIC BRAIN REGIONS, THE HIPPOCAMPUS AND CORTEX, AND COMPARED THE RESULTS TO THOSE OF THE CONTROL MOUSE. DIFFERENTIALLY EXPRESSED LNCRNAS AND MRNAS WERE IDENTIFIED WITH A MICROARRAY ANALYSIS (ARRAYSTAR MOUSE LNCRNA EXPRESSION MICROARRAY V3.0). THEN, GENE ONTOLOGY (GO) AND PATHWAY ANALYSIS WERE PERFORMED TO INVESTIGATE THE POTENTIAL ROLES OF THE DIFFERENTIALLY EXPRESSED MRNAS IN THE PILOCARPINE MODEL. PROTEIN-PROTEIN INTERACTIONS TRANSCRIBED BY DYSREGULATED MRNAS WITH/WITHOUT CO-DYSREGULATED LNCRNAS WERE ANALYZED USING STRING V10 (HTTP://STRING-DB.ORG/). RESULTS: A TOTAL OF 22 AND 83 LNCRNAS WERE UP- AND DOWN-REGULATED (>/=2.0-FOLD, ALL P < .05), RESPECTIVELY, IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS OF THE EPILEPSY MODEL, WHILE 46 AND 659 LNCRNAS WERE UP- AND DOWN-REGULATED, RESPECTIVELY, IN THE CORTEX OF THE EPILEPSY MODEL. GO AND PATHWAY ANALYSIS REVEALED THAT THE DYSREGULATED MRNAS WERE CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH A PROCESS ALREADY KNOWN TO BE INVOLVED IN EPILEPTOGENESIS: ACUTE INFLAMMATION, CALCIUM ION REGULATION, EXTRACELLULAR MATRIX REMODELING, AND NEURONAL DIFFERENTIATION. AMONG THE LNCRNAS, WE IDENTIFIED 10 LNCRNAS COMMONLY DYSREGULATED WITH CORRESPONDING MRNAS IN THE CORTEX. THE STRING ANALYSIS SHOWED THAT THE DYSREGULATED MRNAS WERE INTERCONNECTED AROUND TWO CENTERS: THE MTOR PATHWAY-RELATED GENES AND REST PATHWAY-RELATED GENES. CONCLUSION: LNCRNAS WERE DYSREGULATED IN THE PILOCARPINE MOUSE MODEL ACCORDING TO THE BRAIN REGIONS OF THE HIPPOCAMPUS AND CORTEX. THE DYSREGULATED LNCRNAS WITH CO-DYSREGULATED MRNAS MIGHT BE POSSIBLE THERAPEUTIC TARGETS FOR THE EPIGENETIC REGULATION OF CHRONIC EPILEPSY. 2018 7 3494 33 IDENTIFICATION OF MICRORNAS WITH DYSREGULATED EXPRESSION IN STATUS EPILEPTICUS INDUCED EPILEPTOGENESIS. THE INVOLVEMENT OF MIRNA IN MESIAL TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY (MTLE) PATHOGENESIS HAS INCREASINGLY BECOME A FOCUS OF EPIGENETIC STUDIES. DESPITE ADVANCES, THE NUMBER OF KNOWN MIRNAS WITH A CONSISTENT EXPRESSION RESPONSE DURING EPILEPTOGENESIS IS STILL SMALL. ADDRESSING THIS SITUATION REQUIRES ADDITIONAL MIRNA PROFILING STUDIES COUPLED TO DETAILED INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION ANALYSES. HERE, WE PERFORM A MIRNA MICROARRAY ANALYSIS OF THE HIPPOCAMPUS OF WISTAR RATS 24 HOURS AFTER INTRA-HIPPOCAMPAL PILOCARPINE-INDUCED STATUS EPILEPTICUS (H-PILO SE). WE IDENTIFIED 73 MIRNAS THAT UNDERGO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES, OF WHICH 36 WERE UP-REGULATED AND 37 WERE DOWN-REGULATED. TO VALIDATE, WE SELECTED 5 OF THESE (10A-5P, 128A-3P, 196B-5P, 352 AND 324-3P) FOR RT-QPCR ANALYSIS. OUR RESULTS CONFIRMED THAT MIR-352 AND 196B-5P LEVELS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER AND MIR-128A-3P LEVELS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS OF H-PILO SE RATS. WE ALSO EVALUATED WHETHER THE 3 MIRNAS SHOW A DYSREGULATED HIPPOCAMPAL EXPRESSION AT THREE TIME PERIODS (0H, 24H AND CHRONIC PHASE) AFTER SYSTEMIC PILOCARPINE-INDUCED STATUS EPILEPTICUS (S-PILO SE). WE DEMONSTRATE THAT MIR-128A-3P TRANSCRIPTS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED AT ALL TIME POINTS COMPARED TO THE NAIVE GROUP. MOREOVER, MIR-196B-5P WAS SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER ONLY AT 24H POST-SE, WHILE MIR-352 TRANSCRIPTS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY UP-REGULATED AFTER 24H AND IN CHRONIC PHASE (EPILEPTIC) RATS. FINALLY, WHEN WE COMPARED HIPPOCAMPI OF EPILEPTIC AND NON-EPILEPTIC HUMANS, WE OBSERVED THAT TRANSCRIPT LEVELS OF MIRNAS SHOW SIMILAR TRENDS TO THE ANIMAL MODELS. IN SUMMARY, WE SUCCESSFULLY IDENTIFIED TWO NOVEL DYSREGULATED MIRNAS (196B-5P AND 352) AND CONFIRMED MIR-128A-3P DOWNREGULATION IN SE-INDUCED EPILEPTOGENESIS. FURTHER FUNCTIONAL ASSAYS ARE REQUIRED TO UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF THESE MIRNAS IN MTLE PATHOGENESIS. 2016 8 5348 31 RASGRF1, A POTENTIAL METHYLATIC MEDIATOR OF ANTI-EPILEPTOGENESIS? EPILEPTOGENESIS, INDUCED BY STATUS EPILEPTICUS (SE), IS A CHRONIC PROCESS, AND INTERVENTION IN THIS PROGRESS MAY PREVENT CHRONIC EPILEPSY. IT HAS BEEN PROPOSED THAT DNA METHYLATION MIGHT BE RELATED WITH EPILEPTOGENESIS. RASGRF1 HAS A DIFFERENTIALLY METHYLATED REGION AT THE PROMOTER WHICH CAN SILENCE GENE EXPRESSION. WE HAVE PREVIOUSLY OBSERVED THE DOWN-REGULATION OF RASGRF1 IN EPILEPSY PATIENTS AND PROVED THAT HYPERMETHYLATION OF RASGRF1 REACHES MAXIMAL LEVEL AT THE LATENT PERIOD IN MICE AFTER KAINATE-INDUCED SE (KA MICE), WITH CORRESPONDING ALTERATION OF RASGRF1 EXPRESSION. IN THE PRESENT STUDY, N-PHTHALYL-L-TRYPTOPHAN (RG108), A DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE INHIBITOR, WAS APPLIED IN KA MICE AT LATENT PHASE AND THE BEHAVIOR, ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM AND PATHOLOGICAL CHANGES WERE OBSERVED IN CHRONIC PHASE. METHYLATION AND EXPRESSION OF RASGRF1 WERE DETERMINED BY POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION (PCR), WESTERN BLOTTING, AND BISULFITE SEQUENCING PCR. THE RESULTS SHOWED THAT THE INCIDENCE OF SPONTANEOUS RECURRENT SEIZURES (SRS) WAS SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER IN THE RG108 GROUP THAN THE NORMAL SALINE (NS) GROUP. SUBGROUP ANALYSIS SHOWED SIGNIFICANT HYPERMETHYLATION AND LOWER EXPRESSION OF RASGRF1 IN THE RG108-SRS SUBGROUP AND THE NS-SRS SUBGROUP BUT NOT IN THE RG108-NSRS (NO SRS) SUBGROUP AND THE NS-NSRS SUBGROUP COMPARED WITH THE CONTROL GROUP. NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE WAS FOUND BETWEEN THE RG108-SRS AND NS-SRS SUBGROUPS. MEANWHILE, HIPPOCAMPAL NEURONAL LOSS WAS OBSERVED IN RG108-SRS AND NS-SRS SUBGROUPS. WE THUS DEMONSTRATED THAT RG108 COULD MODIFY THE PROGRESSION OF EPILEPTOGENESIS AFTER KA INDUCED SE AND PREVENT CHRONIC EPILEPSY. MEANWHILE, HYPERMETHYLATION OF RASGRF1 AFTER KA INDUCED SE COULD BE REVERSED WITH CORRESPONDING CHANGES OF RASGRF1 EXPRESSION. ADDITIONALLY, WE SPECULATED THAT RASGRF1 MIGHT BE A POTENTIAL EPIGENETIC MEDIATOR IN EPILEPTOGENESIS AND CHRONIC EPILEPSY. 2018 9 6596 32 TUMOR-SUPPRESSIVE MIR-192-5P HAS PROGNOSTIC VALUE IN PANCREATIC DUCTAL ADENOCARCINOMA. PANCREATIC DUCTAL ADENOCARCINOMA (PDAC) IS CHARACTERIZED BY FAST TUMOR PROGRESSION AND DIAGNOSIS AT ADVANCED, INOPERABLE STAGES. PREVIOUS STUDIES COULD DEMONSTRATE AN INVOLVEMENT OF MIR-192-5P IN EPIGENETIC REGULATION OF VISCERAL CARCINOMAS. DUE TO CONTRADICTORY RESULTS, HOWEVER, THE CLINICAL UTILITY OF MIR-192-5P IN PDAC HAS YET TO BE DETERMINED. MIR-192-5P EXPRESSION WAS ANALYZED BY RT-QRT-PCR IN HUMAN PDAC AND BENIGN TISSUE (N = 78), BLOOD SERUM (N = 81) AND SERUM EXOSOMES (N = 74), AS WELL AS IN PDAC CELL LINES (N = 5), CHEMORESISTANT CELL CLONES (N = 2), AND PANCREATIC DUCT CELL LINE H6C7. ANALYSIS OF EMT-ASSOCIATED (EPITHELIAL-TO-MESENCHYMAL TRANSITION) PROTEINS WAS PERFORMED BY IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY AND WESTERN BLOT. MIR-192-5P WAS DEREGULATED IN PDAC AS COMPARED TO HEALTHY CONTROLS (HCS), WITH DOWNREGULATION IN MACRODISSECTED TISSUE (P < 0.001) AND UPREGULATION IN BLOOD SERUM OF PDAC UICC (UNION FOR INTERNATIONAL CANCER CONTROL) STAGE IV (P = 0.016) AND SERUM EXOSOMES OF PDAC UICC STAGES II TO IV (P < 0.001). MIR-192-5P EXPRESSION IN TUMOR TISSUE WAS SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER AS COMPARED TO CORRESPONDING PERITUMORAL TISSUE (PDAC UICC STAGE II: P < 0.001; PDAC UICC STAGE III: P = 0.024), WHILE EMT MARKERS ZEB1 AND ZEB2 WERE MORE FREQUENTLY EXPRESSED IN TUMOR TISSUE AS COMPARED TO PERITUMORAL TISSUE, HCS, AND CHRONIC PANCREATITIS. TISSUE-DERIVED (AUC OF 0.86; P < 0.0001) AND EXOSOMAL (AUC OF 0.83; P = 0.0004) MIR-192-5P COULD DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN PDAC AND HCS WITH GOOD ACCURACY. FURTHERMORE, HIGH EXPRESSION OF MIR-192-5P IN PDAC TISSUE OF CURATIVELY RESECTED PDAC PATIENTS CORRELATED WITH PROLONGED OVERALL AND RECURRENCE-FREE SURVIVAL IN MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS. IN VITRO, MIR-192-5P WAS DOWNREGULATED IN GEMCITABINE-RESISTANT CELL CLONES OF ASPC-1 (P = 0.029). TRANSIENT TRANSFECTION OF MIA PACA-2 CELLS WITH MIR-192-5P MIMIC RESULTED IN DOWNREGULATION OF ZEB2. MIR-192-5P SEEMS TO POSSESS A TUMOR-SUPPRESSIVE ROLE AND HIGH POTENTIAL AS A DIAGNOSTIC AND PROGNOSTIC MARKER IN PDAC. 2020 10 6415 29 THE STUDY OF P16 AND P15 GENE METHYLATION IN HEAD AND NECK SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA AND THEIR QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION IN PLASMA BY REAL-TIME PCR. EPIGENETIC SILENCING OF THE P16 AND P15 GENES BY PROMOTER METHYLATION ARE COMMONLY OBSERVED IN HUMAN EPITHELIAL MALIGNANCIES, INCLUDING HEAD AND NECK SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMAS (HNSCC). IN THIS STUDY, A METHYLATION-SPECIFIC POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION (MSP) WAS USED TO EVALUATE THE METHYLATION STATUS OF THE P16 AND P15 GENES IN 73 HNSCC SURGICAL SPECIMENS. P16 AND P15 GENE METHYLATION WAS ALSO EXAMINED IN 29 PAIRED METASTATIC LYMPH NODES AND 29 PAIRED HISTOLOGICALLY, NORMAL RESECTION MARGIN MUCOSAE. THE QUANTITY OF CELL-FREE METHYLATED P16 AND P15 DNA IN THE PLASMA SAMPLES OF 20 HNSCC PATIENTS AND 24 HEALTHY CONTROLS WAS ALSO EXAMINED USING A FLUORESCENCE-BASED REAL-TIME PCR ASSAY. THE FREQUENCIES OF P16 AND P15 METHYLATION IN THE PRIMARY TUMOUR WERE 49% AND 60%, RESPECTIVELY. CONCORDANT METHYLATION OF P16 AND P15 IN TUMOUR SAMPLES AND METASTATIC LYMPH NODES WAS FOUND IN 59 AND 38% OF CASES, RESPECTIVELY. A SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER PREVALENCE OF P15 METHYLATION WAS FOUND IN HISTOLOGICALLY-NORMAL SURGICAL MARGIN EPITHELIA OF HNSCC PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC SMOKING AND DRINKING HABITS COMPARED WITH NON-SMOKERS AND NON-DRINKERS. IN ADDITION, METHYLATED P16 AND P15 DNA LEVELS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER IN THE PLASMA OF HNSCC PATIENTS (MEAN 56 COPIES/ML PLASMA AND 65 COPIES/ML PLASMA, RESPECTIVELY) COMPARED WITH NORMAL CONTROLS (MEAN 6 COPIES/ML PLASMA AND 16 COPIES/ML PLASMA, RESPECTIVELY). IN CONCLUSION, PROMOTER METHYLATION OF THE P16 AND P15 GENES IS INVOLVED IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF HNSCC AND MAY BE RELATED TO CHRONIC SMOKING AND DRINKING. THE DIFFERENTIAL LEVELS OF METHYLATED P16 AND P15 DNA IN PLASMA MIGHT BE POTENTIAL USEFUL MARKERS IN SCREENING HIGH-RISK POPULATIONS FOR EARLY HNSCC AND MONITORING THEIR TREATMENT RESPONSE. 2003 11 5854 32 SUBSTANCE P AND NEPRILYSIN IN CHRONIC PANCREATITIS. BACKGROUND/AIMS: WE AIMED TO ANALYZE SUBSTANCE P (SP) AND NEPRILYSIN (NEP), THE MEMBRANE METALLOPEPTIDASE THAT DEGRADES SP, IN CHRONIC PANCREATITIS (CP). METHODS: SP AND NEP MRNA LEVELS WERE ANALYZED BY QRT-PCR IN TISSUE SAMPLES FROM 30 PATIENTS WITH CP AND 8 ORGAN DONORS. IN ADDITION, SP SERUM LEVELS WERE DETERMINED BEFORE AND AFTER SURGERY IN THE SAME PATIENTS, BY MEANS OF A COMPETITIVE ELISA ASSAY. GENETIC AND EPIGENETIC ANALYSES OF THE NEP GENE WERE ALSO PERFORMED. RESULTS: SP MRNA EXPRESSION LEVELS WERE HIGHER IN CP TISSUES COMPARED TO CONTROLS (P = 0.0152), WHILE NEP MRNA SHOWED NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CP AND HEALTHY SUBJECTS (P = 0.2102). IN CP PATIENTS, SP SERUM LEVELS CORRELATED WITH THOSE IN TISSUE, AND AFTER SURGICAL RESECTION SP SERUM LEVELS WERE REDUCED COMPARED TO THE PREOPERATIVE VALUES. FAILURE OF NEP TO OVEREXPRESS IN CP TISSUES WAS ASSOCIATED WITH SIGNIFICANT MIR-128A OVEREXPRESSION (P = 0.02), RATHER THAN WITH MUTATIONS IN THE NEP CODING REGION OR THE PRESENCE OF HYPERMETHYLATION SITES IN THE NEP PROMOTER REGION. CONCLUSION: TISSUE AND SERUM LEVELS OF SP WERE INCREASED IN CP, WHILE NEP LEVELS REMAINED UNALTERED. IN AN SP/NEP-MEDIATED PATHWAY, IT WOULD APPEAR THAT NEP FAILS TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE SURVEILLANCE OF SP LEVELS. FAILURE OF NEP TO OVEREXPRESS COULD BE ASSOCIATED WITH MIRNA REGULATION. 2012 12 5345 42 RAPID CHANGES IN EXPRESSION OF CLASS I AND IV HISTONE DEACETYLASES DURING EPILEPTOGENESIS IN MOUSE MODELS OF TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY. A PROMINENT ROLE OF EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS IN MANIFESTATION OF EPILEPSY HAS BEEN PROPOSED. THUS ALTERED HISTONE H3 AND H4 ACETYLATION HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN EXPERIMENTAL MODELS OF TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY (TLE). WE NOW INVESTIGATED CHANGES IN THE EXPRESSION OF THE CLASS I AND CLASS IV HISTONE DEACETYLASES (HDAC) IN TWO COMPLEMENTARY MOUSE TLE MODELS. UNILATERAL INTRAHIPPOCAMPAL INJECTION OF KAINIC ACID (KA) INDUCED A STATUS EPILEPTICUS LASTING 6 TO 24H, DEVELOPMENT OF SPONTANEOUS LIMBIC SEIZURES (2 TO 3 DAYS AFTER KA INJECTION) AND CHRONIC EPILEPSY, AS REVEALED BY TELEMETRIC RECORDINGS OF THE EEGS. MICE WERE KILLED AT DIFFERENT INTERVALS AFTER KA INJECTION AND EXPRESSION OF HDAC MRNAS WAS INVESTIGATED BY IN SITU HYBRIDIZATION. WE OBSERVED MARKED DECREASES IN THE EXPRESSION OF HDACS 1, 2 AND 11 (BY UP TO 75%) IN THE GRANULE CELL AND PYRAMIDAL CELL LAYERS OF THE HIPPOCAMPUS DURING THE ACUTE STATUS EPILEPTICUS (2 TO 6H AFTER KA INJECTION). THIS WAS FOLLOWED BY INCREASED EXPRESSION OF ALL CLASS I HDAC MRNAS IN ALL PRINCIPAL CELL LAYERS OF THE HIPPOCAMPUS AFTER 12 TO 48 H. IN THE CHRONIC PHASE, 14 AND 28 DAYS AFTER KA, ONLY MODEST INCREASES IN THE EXPRESSION OF HDAC1 MRNA WERE OBSERVED IN GRANULE AND PYRAMIDAL CELLS. IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY USING AN ANTIBODY DETECTING HDAC2 REVEALED RESULTS CONSISTENT WITH THE MRNA DATA AND INDICATES ALSO EXPRESSION IN GLIAL CELLS ON THE INJECTION SIDE. SIMILAR CHANGES AS SEEN IN THE KA MODEL WERE OBSERVED AFTER A PILOCARPINE-INDUCED STATUS EPILEPTICUS EXCEPT THAT DECREASES IN HDACS 2, 3 AND 8 WERE ALSO SEEN AT THE CHRONIC 28 DAY INTERVAL. THE PROMINENT DECREASES IN HDAC EXPRESSION DURING STATUS EPILEPTICUS ARE CONSISTENT WITH THE PREVIOUSLY DEMONSTRATED INCREASED EXPRESSION OF NUMEROUS PROTEINS AND WITH THE AUGMENTED ACETYLATION OF HISTONE H4. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT RESPECTIVE PUTATIVE GENE PRODUCTS COULD FACILITATE PROCONVULSIVE AS WELL AS ANTICONVULSIVE MECHANISMS. THE INCREASED EXPRESSION OF ALL CLASS I HDACS DURING THE "SILENT PHASE", ON THE OTHER HAND, MAY BE RELATED TO DECREASED HISTONE ACETYLATION, WHICH COULD CAUSE A DECREASE IN EXPRESSION OF CERTAIN PROTEINS, A MECHANISM THAT COULD ALSO PROMOTE EPILEPTOGENESIS. THUS, ADDRESSING HDAC EXPRESSION MAY HAVE A THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL IN INTERFERING WITH A STATUS EPILEPTICUS AND WITH THE MANIFESTATION OF TLE. 2015 13 3460 32 HYPOMETHYLATION OF THE IL8 PROMOTER IN NASAL EPITHELIAL CELLS OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC RHINOSINUSITIS WITH NASAL POLYPS. BACKGROUND: IL-8 IS AN IMPORTANT CHEMOKINE IMPLICATED IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF CHRONIC RHINOSINUSITIS (CRS), BUT LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT EPIGENETIC REGULATION OF IL8 IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF CRS. OBJECTIVE: WE SOUGHT TO INVESTIGATE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DNA METHYLATION LEVEL IN THE IL8 PROXIMAL PROMOTER AND CRS IN HAN CHINESE SUBJECTS. METHODS: PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC RHINOSINUSITIS WITH NASAL POLYPS (CRSWNP; N = 187), PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC RHINOSINUSITIS WITHOUT NASAL POLYPS (CRSSNP; N = 89), AND CONTROL SUBJECTS (N = 57) WERE ENROLLED IN 2 INDEPENDENT COHORTS. PURIFIED HUMAN NASAL EPITHELIAL CELLS FROM EACH PARTICIPANT WERE ASSESSED FOR PERCENTAGE DNA METHYLATION OF CPG SITES IN THE IL8 PROXIMAL PROMOTER BY USING BISULFITE PYROSEQUENCING AND FOR FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF METHYLATION STATUS BY USING IN VITRO ASSAYS. RESULTS: DNA METHYLATION OF CPG SITES 1, 2, AND 3, RESPECTIVELY, IN THE IL8 PROXIMAL PROMOTER WAS SIGNIFICANTLY DECREASED IN HUMAN NASAL EPITHELIAL CELLS OF PATIENTS WITH CRSWNP COMPARED WITH THAT IN PATIENTS WITH CRSSNP (P < .001) AND CONTROL SUBJECTS (P < .001). PERCENTAGE OF DNA METHYLATION OF THE CPG3 SITE WAS CORRELATED NEGATIVELY WITH BOTH TISSUE EOSINOPHILIC CATIONIC PROTEIN (P < .01) AND MYELOPEROXIDASE (P < .05) LEVELS. IL-1BETA (P < .001) AND TNF-ALPHA (P < .01) SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED IL8 EXPRESSION ACCOMPANIED BY A REDUCTION IN METHYLATION AT THE CPG3 SITE (P < .001). ELECTROPHORETIC MOBILITY SHIFT ASSAYS DEMONSTRATED THAT METHYLATION STATUS OF CPG3 CHANGED THE BINDING OF OCTAMER-BINDING TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR 1 AND NUCLEAR FACTOR KAPPAB. CONCLUSION: DECREASED DNA METHYLATION OF PARTICULARLY CPG SITES IN THE IL8 PROXIMAL PROMOTER MIGHT PLAY A ROLE IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF CRSWNP. 2019 14 1301 32 DEEP SEQUENCING REVEALS INCREASED DNA METHYLATION IN CHRONIC RAT EPILEPSY. EPILEPSY IS A FREQUENT NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER, ALTHOUGH ONSET AND PROGRESSION OF SEIZURES REMAIN DIFFICULT TO PREDICT IN AFFECTED PATIENTS, IRRESPECTIVE OF THEIR EPILEPTOGENIC CONDITION. PREVIOUS STUDIES IN ANIMAL MODELS AS WELL AS HUMAN EPILEPTIC BRAIN TISSUE REVEALED A REMARKABLY DIVERSE PATTERN OF GENE EXPRESSION IMPLICATING EPIGENETIC CHANGES TO CONTRIBUTE TO DISEASE PROGRESSION. HERE WE MAPPED FOR THE FIRST TIME GLOBAL DNA METHYLATION PATTERNS IN CHRONIC EPILEPTIC RATS AND CONTROLS. USING METHYL-CPG CAPTURE ASSOCIATED WITH MASSIVE PARALLEL SEQUENCING (METHYL-SEQ) WE REPORT THE GENOMIC METHYLATION SIGNATURE OF THE CHRONIC EPILEPTIC STATE. WE OBSERVED A PREDOMINANT INCREASE, RATHER THAN LOSS OF DNA METHYLATION IN CHRONIC RAT EPILEPSY. ABERRANT METHYLATION PATTERNS WERE INVERSELY CORRELATED WITH GENE EXPRESSION CHANGES USING MRNA SEQUENCING FROM SAME ANIMALS AND TISSUE SPECIMENS. ADMINISTRATION OF A KETOGENIC, HIGH-FAT, LOW-CARBOHYDRATE DIET ATTENUATED SEIZURE PROGRESSION AND AMELIORATED DNA METHYLATION MEDIATED CHANGES IN GENE EXPRESSION. THIS IS THE FIRST REPORT OF UNSUPERVISED CLUSTERING OF AN EPIGENETIC MARK BEING USED IN EPILEPSY RESEARCH TO SEPARATE EPILEPTIC FROM NON-EPILEPTIC ANIMALS AS WELL AS FROM ANIMALS RECEIVING ANTI-CONVULSIVE DIETARY TREATMENT. WE FURTHER DISCUSS THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF EPIGENETIC CHANGES AS A PATHOGENIC MECHANISM OF EPILEPTOGENESIS. 2013 15 3783 28 INTERFERON-GAMMA PROMOTER HYPOMETHYLATION AND INCREASED EXPRESSION IN CHRONIC PERIODONTITIS. AIM: THE GOAL OF THIS INVESTIGATION WAS TO DETERMINE WHETHER EPIGENETIC MODIFICATIONS IN THE IFNG PROMOTER ARE ASSOCIATED WITH AN INCREASE OF IFNG TRANSCRIPTION IN DIFFERENT STAGES OF PERIODONTAL DISEASES. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DNA WAS EXTRACTED FROM GINGIVAL BIOPSY SAMPLES COLLECTED FROM 47 TOTAL SITES FROM 47 DIFFERENT SUBJECTS: 23 PERIODONTALLY HEALTHY SITES, 12 EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED GINGIVITIS SITES AND 12 CHRONIC PERIODONTITIS SITES. LEVELS OF DNA METHYLATION WITHIN THE IFNG PROMOTER CONTAINING SIX CPG DINUCLEOTIDES WERE DETERMINED USING PYROSEQUENCING TECHNOLOGY. INTERFERON GAMMA MRNA EXPRESSION WAS ANALYSED BY QUANTITATIVE POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTIONS USING ISOLATED RNA FROM PART OF THE BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES MENTIONED ABOVE. RESULTS: THE METHYLATION LEVEL OF ALL SIX ANALYSED CPG SITES WITHIN THE IFNG PROMOTER REGION IN THE PERIODONTITIS BIOPSIES 52% [INTERQUARTILE RANGE, IQR (43.8%, 63%)] WAS SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER THAN PERIODONTALLY HEALTHY SAMPLES 62% [IQR (51.3%, 74%)], P=0.007 AND GINGIVITIS BIOPSIES 63% [IQR (55%, 74%)], P=0.02. THE TRANSCRIPTIONAL LEVEL OF IFNG IN PERIODONTITIS BIOPSIES WAS 1.96-FOLD AND SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER THAN TISSUES WITH PERIODONTAL HEALTH (P=0.04). ALTHOUGH THE MRNA LEVEL FROM EXPERIMENTAL GINGIVITIS SAMPLES EXHIBITED AN 8.5-FOLD INCREASE AS COMPARED WITH PERIODONTALLY HEALTHY SAMPLES, NO SIGNIFICANT METHYLATION DIFFERENCE WAS OBSERVED IN EXPERIMENTAL GINGIVITIS SAMPLE. CONCLUSIONS: A HYPOMETHYLATION PROFILE WITHIN IFNG PROMOTER REGION IS RELATED TO AN INCREASE OF IFNG TRANSCRIPTION PRESENT IN THE CHRONIC PERIODONTITIS BIOPSIES, WHILE SUCH AN INCREASE OF IFNG IN EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED GINGIVITIS SEEMS INDEPENDENT OF PROMOTER METHYLATION ALTERATION. 2010 16 124 31 A SYSTEMS APPROACH DELIVERS A FUNCTIONAL MICRORNA CATALOG AND EXPANDED TARGETS FOR SEIZURE SUPPRESSION IN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY. TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY IS THE MOST COMMON DRUG-RESISTANT FORM OF EPILEPSY IN ADULTS. THE REORGANIZATION OF NEURAL NETWORKS AND THE GENE EXPRESSION LANDSCAPE UNDERLYING PATHOPHYSIOLOGIC NETWORK BEHAVIOR IN BRAIN STRUCTURES SUCH AS THE HIPPOCAMPUS HAS BEEN SUGGESTED TO BE CONTROLLED, IN PART, BY MICRORNAS. TO SYSTEMATICALLY ASSESS THEIR SIGNIFICANCE, WE SEQUENCED ARGONAUTE-LOADED MICRORNAS TO DEFINE FUNCTIONALLY ENGAGED MICRORNAS IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS OF THREE DIFFERENT ANIMAL MODELS IN TWO SPECIES AND AT SIX TIME POINTS BETWEEN THE INITIAL PRECIPITATING INSULT THROUGH TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRONIC EPILEPSY. WE THEN SELECTED COMMONLY UP-REGULATED MICRORNAS FOR A FUNCTIONAL IN VIVO THERAPEUTIC SCREEN USING OLIGONUCLEOTIDE INHIBITORS. ARGONAUTE SEQUENCING GENERATED 1.44 BILLION SMALL RNA READS OF WHICH UP TO 82% WERE MICRORNAS, WITH OVER 400 UNIQUE MICRORNAS DETECTED PER MODEL. APPROXIMATELY HALF OF THE DETECTED MICRORNAS WERE DYSREGULATED IN EACH EPILEPSY MODEL. WE PRIORITIZED COMMONLY UP-REGULATED MICRORNAS THAT WERE FULLY CONSERVED IN HUMANS AND DESIGNED CUSTOM ANTISENSE OLIGONUCLEOTIDES FOR THESE CANDIDATE TARGETS. ANTISEIZURE PHENOTYPES WERE OBSERVED UPON KNOCKDOWN OF MIR-10A-5P, MIR-21A-5P, AND MIR-142A-5P AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL ANALYSES INDICATED BROAD SAFETY OF THIS APPROACH. COMBINED INHIBITION OF THESE THREE MICRORNAS REDUCED SPONTANEOUS SEIZURES IN EPILEPTIC MICE. PROTEOMIC DATA, RNA SEQUENCING, AND PATHWAY ANALYSIS ON PREDICTED AND VALIDATED TARGETS OF THESE MICRORNAS IMPLICATED DEREPRESSED TGF-BETA SIGNALING AS A SHARED SEIZURE-MODIFYING MECHANISM. CORRESPONDINGLY, INHIBITION OF TGF-BETA SIGNALING OCCLUDED THE ANTISEIZURE EFFECTS OF THE ANTAGOMIRS. TOGETHER, THESE RESULTS IDENTIFY SHARED, DYSREGULATED, AND FUNCTIONALLY ACTIVE MICRORNAS DURING THE PATHOGENESIS OF EPILEPSY WHICH REPRESENT THERAPEUTIC ANTISEIZURE TARGETS. 2020 17 1064 40 CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PROMOTER METHYLATION STATUS OF TUMOR SUPPRESSOR GENES IN CIRCULATING DNA OF PANCREATIC CANCER PATIENTS. INTRODUCTION: PANCREATIC DUCTAL ADENOCARCINOMA (PDAC) IS A VERY AGGRESSIVE CANCER. THERE ARE VARIOUS SUB-CELLULAR EVENTS (BOTH GENETIC AND EPIGENETIC) THAT GET DYSREGULATED LEADING TO TUMORIGENESIS. METHYLATION IN PROMOTERS OF TUMOR SUPPRESSOR GENES IS ONE OF THESE EPIGENETIC PHENOMENA CONTRIBUTING TO THE PATHOGENESIS OF CANCER. GENES ANALYZED FOR PROMOTER METHYLATION STATUS IN THIS STUDY NAMELY SPARC (SECRETED PROTEIN ACIDIC AND RICH IN CYSTEINE, UCHL1 (UBIQUITIN CARBOXY-TERMINAL HYDROLASE L1), NPTX2 (NEURONAL PENTRAXIN 2), PENK (PROENKEPHALIN) HAD BEEN STUDIED IN PANCREATIC CANCER, BUT THERE IS A NEED TO CHECK METHYLATION IN THESE GENES AS CIRCULATORY NON-INVASIVE MARKERS. THIS STUDY ANALYZED THE ABSOLUTE QUANTIFICATION OF METHYLATION LEVELS OF SPARC, UCHL1, PENK, AND NPTX2 GENES PROMOTERS IN PDAC PATIENTS AS WELL AS IN CHRONIC PANCREATITIS (CP) PATIENTS AND HEALTHY SUBJECTS (HC) AND EVALUATED ITS CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE IN PDAC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: THE STUDY INCLUDED 65 PDAC PATIENTS, 25 CP PATIENTS, AND 25 HEALTHY CONTROLS. DNA WAS EXTRACTED FROM THEIR PLASMA SAMPLES AND SUBSEQUENTLY GIVEN BISULFITE TREATMENT. ABSOLUTE QUANTIZATION OF METHYLATED AND UNMETHYLATED COPIES OF GENE PROMOTERS OF ALL THE FOUR GENES WAS PERFORMED USING REAL-TIME PCR (SYBR GREEN) BY THE STANDARD CURVE METHOD. METHYLATION LEVELS WERE EXPRESSED AS METHYLATION INDEX (MI) FOR EACH GENE IN EACH PATIENT. MI WAS CALCULATED FROM ABSOLUTE COPY NUMBERS AS FOLLOWS: MI-METHYLATED COPY NUMBER/METHYLATED COPY NUMBER + UNMETHYLATED COPY NUMBER). THESE INDICES WERE USED TO COMPARE GENE METHYLATION LEVELS WITHIN DIFFERENT GROUPS AND TO CORRELATE WITH CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL FEATURES AND SURVIVAL OF PANCREATIC CANCER PATIENTS. AN APPROPRIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS WAS APPLIED. RESULTS: METHYLATION INDICES FOR ALL THE FOUR GENES IN PDAC CASES WERE FOUND TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER AS COMPARED TO THAT IN HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS. SPARC MI VALUES WERE FOUND TO DIFFERENTIATE EARLY-STAGE PDAC PATIENTS FROM CP PATIENTS. PDAC PATIENTS WITH THE METASTASIZED DISEASE AND STAGE IV DISEASE WERE FOUND TO HAVE HIGH MI FOR THE SPARC GENE AS WELL AS FOR THE NPTX2 GENE, WHILE A HIGHER UCHL1 METHYLATION INDEX WAS FOUND TO CORRELATE WITH AN ADVANCED STAGE OF THE DISEASE. HIGHER MI VALUES FOR SPARC AND NPTX2 GENES WERE FOUND TO ASSOCIATE WITH POOR SURVIVAL IN PATIENTS WITH PDAC. CONCLUSION: METHYLATION LOAD IN THE FORM OF MI FOR EACH OF THE FOUR GENES ASSESSED IN PLASMA MAY EMERGE AS A NON-INVASIVE BIOMARKER TO DIFFERENTIATE PANCREATIC CANCER FROM HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS. BUT ONLY SPARC AND NPTX2 HYPERMETHYLATION WERE ABLE TO DISTINGUISH PANCREATIC CANCER FROM CHRONIC PANCREATITIS. ASSOCIATION OF ABERRANT METHYLATION IN SPARC AND NPTX2 GENE WITH METASTASIS AND POOR SURVIVAL OF PATIENTS SUGGEST THE ROLE OF METHYLATION IN THESE GENES AS PROGNOSTIC MARKERS. 2020 18 3294 32 HIGH INCIDENCE OF MGMT AND RARBETA PROMOTER METHYLATION IN PRIMARY GLIOBLASTOMAS: ASSOCIATION WITH HISTOPATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS, INFLAMMATORY MEDIATORS AND CLINICAL OUTCOME. GLIOBLASTOMAS, THE MOST FREQUENT PRIMARY BRAIN TUMORS IN ADULTS, ARE CHARACTERIZED BY A HIGHLY AGGRESSIVE, INFLAMMATORY AND ANGIOGENIC PHENOTYPE. METHYLATION OF CPG ISLANDS IN CANCER-RELATED GENES MAY SERVE AS AN EPIGENETIC BIOMARKER FOR GLIOBLASTOMA DIAGNOSIS AND PROGNOSIS. THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO ANALYZE THE METHYLATION STATUS OF FOUR CRITICAL TUMOR-ASSOCIATED GENES (MGMT, RARBETA, RASSF1A, CDH13), AND INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE LINKS WITH INFLAMMATORY (INTERLEUKIN [IL]-6, IL-8) AND ANGIOGENIC MEDIATORS (VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR [VEGF], CYCLOOXYGENASE [COX]-2) AND CLINICAL OUTCOME IN 23 GLIOMA SAMPLES (6 GRADE II ASTROCYTOMAS, 17 GRADE IV GLIOBLASTOMAS). RARBETA AND MGMT GENES WERE MORE FREQUENTLY METHYLATED IN 70.58% AND 58.8% OF GLIOBLASTOMAS, RESPECTIVELY. RASSF1A AND CDH13 DISPLAYED A SIMILAR METHYLATION FREQUENCY (23.52%) IN GLIOBLASTOMAS. NO GENE METHYLATION WAS OBSERVED IN GRADE II ASTROCYTOMAS. TUMOR GRADE CORRELATED POSITIVELY WITH MGMT AND RARBETA METHYLATION (P = 0.005 AND P = 0.019, RESPECTIVELY) AND THE EXTENT OF NECROSIS (P = 0.001 AND P = 0.003). INTERESTINGLY, THE MARKER OF CHRONIC INFLAMMATION, IL-6, WAS POSITIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH METHYLATION OF MGMT (P = 0.004), RARBETA (P = 0.002), AND RASSF1A (P = 0.0081) AS WELL AS THE TOTAL NUMBER OF METHYLATED GENES (P < 0.0001), INDICATING THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF IL-6 IN MAINTAINING PROMOTER METHYLATION OF THESE GENES. VEGF EXPRESSION CORRELATED POSITIVELY WITH MGMT AND RARBETA METHYLATION ALTHOUGH THESE RELATIONSHIPS WERE OF MARGINAL SIGNIFICANCE (P = 0.0679 AND P = 0.0757). KAPLAN-MEIER UNIVARIATE SURVIVAL ANALYSIS INDICATED AN UNFAVORABLE SURVIVAL PERIOD IN PATIENTS WITH MGMT METHYLATION COMPARED WITH THOSE WITHOUT METHYLATION (P = 0.0474). OUR STUDY HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPLICATION OF MGMT AND RARBETA METHYLATION IN THE AGGRESSIVE PHENOTYPE OF PRIMARY GLIOBLASTOMAS. THE ASSOCIATION OF MGMT METHYLATION WITH CLINICAL OUTCOME INDICATES ITS POTENTIAL PROGNOSTIC VALUE. 2010 19 1727 29 DYSREGULATION OF LONG NON-CODING RNAS IN MOUSE MODELS OF LOCALIZATION-RELATED EPILEPSY. GENOME-WIDE PROFILING HAS REVEALED THAT EUKARYOTIC GENOMES ARE TRANSCRIBED INTO NUMEROUS NON-CODING RNAS. IN PARTICULAR, LONG NON-CODING RNAS (LNCRNAS) HAVE BEEN IMPLICATED IN VARIOUS HUMAN DISEASES DUE TO THEIR BIOCHEMICAL AND FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY. EPILEPTIC DISORDERS HAVE BEEN CHARACTERIZED BY DYSREGULATION OF EPIGENETIC REGULATORY MECHANISMS, AND RECENT STUDIES HAVE IDENTIFIED SEVERAL LNCRNAS INVOLVED IN NEURAL DEVELOPMENT AND NETWORK FUNCTION. HOWEVER, COMPREHENSIVE PROFILING OF LNCRNAS IMPLICATED IN CHRONIC EPILEPSY HAS BEEN LACKING. IN THIS STUDY, MICROARRAY ANALYSIS WAS PERFORMED TO OBTAIN THE EXPRESSION PROFILE OF LNCRNAS DYSREGULATED IN PILOCARPINE AND KAINATE MODELS, TWO MODELS OF TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY COMMONLY USED FOR STUDYING EPILEPTIC MECHANISMS. TOTAL OF 4622 LNCRNAS WERE ANALYZED: 384 LNCRNAS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY DYSREGULATED IN PILOCARPINE MODEL, AND 279 LNCRNAS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY DYSREGULATED IN KAINATE MODEL COMPARED WITH CONTROL MICE (>/=3.0-FOLD, P < 0.05). AMONG THESE, 54 AND 14 LNCRNAS, RESPECTIVELY, HAD ADJACENT PROTEIN-CODING GENES WHOSE EXPRESSIONS WERE ALSO SIGNIFICANTLY DYSREGULATED (>/=2.0-FOLD, P < 0.05). MAJORITY OF THESE PAIRS OF LNCRNAS AND ADJACENT GENES SHARED THE SAME DIRECTION OF DYSREGULATION. FOR THE SELECTED ADJACENT GENE-LNCRNA PAIRS, SIGNIFICANT GENE ONTOLOGY TERMS WERE EMBRYONIC APPENDAGE MORPHOGENESIS AND NEURON DIFFERENTIATION. THIS WAS THE FIRST STUDY TO COMPREHENSIVELY IDENTIFY DYSREGULATED LNCRNAS IN TWO DIFFERENT MODELS OF CHRONIC EPILEPSY AND WILL LIKELY PROVIDE A NOVEL INSIGHT INTO DEVELOPING LNCRNA THERAPEUTICS. 2015 20 4903 23 P16 PROMOTER HYPERMETHYLATION IN HUMAN HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA WITH OR WITHOUT HEPATITIS VIRUS INFECTION. BACKGROUND: EPIGENETIC ALTERATION THROUGH METHYLATION IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT STEPS IN CARCINOGENESIS. HOWEVER, THE RELATION BETWEEN HEPATITIS VIRUS INFECTION AND EPIGENETIC ALTERATIONS IS POORLY UNDERSTOOD. METHODS: SIXTEEN PATIENTS WITHOUT HEPATITIS B VIRUS (HBV) AND HEPATITIS C VIRUS (HCV) AND 35 PATIENTS WITH HBV OR HCV WHO UNDERWENT LIVER RESECTION FOR HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA (HCC) WERE STUDIED. MUTATION OF P53 WAS DETECTED BY DIRECT SEQUENCING. METHYLATION STATUS OF P16 WAS EVALUATED IN TUMOR AND NONCANCEROUS LIVER TISSUES BY METHYLATION-SPECIFIC POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION. RESULTS: IN HCC WITHOUT HBV AND HCV, P53 MUTATIONS WERE DETECTED IN 5 (31%) OF 16 HCCS. METHYLATION OF P16 PROMOTER WAS DETECTED IN 2 (25%) OF 8 MODERATELY DIFFERENTIATED HCCS, 6 (75%) OF 8 POORLY DIFFERENTIATED HCCS, AND NONE OF 16 NONCANCEROUS TISSUE SPECIMENS. IN HCC WITH HBV OR HCV, P53 MUTATIONS WERE DETECTED IN 8 (23%) OF 35 HCCS. METHYLATION OF P16 PROMOTER WAS DETECTED IN 2 (100%) OF 2 WELL-DIFFERENTIATED HCCS, 13 (76%) OF 17 MODERATELY DIFFERENTIATED HCCS, 12 (75%) OF 16 POORLY DIFFERENTIATED HCCS, AND 9 (26%) OF 35 NONCANCEROUS LIVER TISSUE SPECIMENS. CONCLUSIONS: OUR RESULTS SUGGEST THAT HEPATITIS VIRUSES MIGHT INDUCE METHYLATION OF P16 PROMOTER IN LIVER WITH CHRONIC INFLAMMATION, BEFORE APPEARANCE OF HCC. 2004