1 6711 240 VIRTUES AND WEAKNESSES OF DNA METHYLATION AS A TEST FOR CERVICAL CANCER PREVENTION. EPIGENETICS IS THE STUDY OF HERITABLE AND NON-HERITABLE GENETIC CODING THAT IS ADDITIVE TO INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN CLASSICAL DNA BASE PAIR SEQUENCES. DIFFERENTIAL METHYLATION HAS A FUNDAMENTAL ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND OUTCOME OF MALIGNANCIES, CHRONIC AND DEGENERATIVE DISEASES AND AGING. DNA METHYLATION CAN BE MEASURED ACCURATELY AND EASILY VIA VARIOUS MOLECULAR METHODS AND HAS BECOME A KEY TECHNOLOGY FOR RESEARCH AND HEALTHCARE DELIVERY, WITH IMMEDIATE ROLES IN THE ELUCIDATION OF DISEASE NATURAL HISTORY, DIAGNOSTICS AND DRUG DISCOVERY. THIS REVIEW FOCUSES ON CANCERS OF THE LOWER GENITAL TRACT, FOR WHICH THE MOST EPIGENETIC INFORMATION EXISTS. DNA METHYLATION HAS BEEN PROPOSED AS A TRIAGE FOR WOMEN INFECTED WITH HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) AND MAY EVENTUALLY DIRECTLY COMPLEMENT OR REPLACE HPV SCREENING AS A ONE-STEP MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTIC AND PROGNOSTIC TEST. METHYLATION OF HUMAN GENES IS STRONGLY ASSOCIATED WITH CERVICAL INTRAEPITHELIAL NEOPLASIA (CIN) AND CANCER. OF THE MORE THAN 100 HUMAN METHYLATION BIOMARKER GENES TESTED SO FAR IN CERVICAL TISSUE, CLOSE TO 20 HAVE BEEN REPORTED IN DIFFERENT STUDIES, AND APPROXIMATELY 10 HAVE BEEN REPEATEDLY SHOWN TO HAVE ELEVATED METHYLATION IN CERVICAL CANCERS AND HIGH-GRADE CIN (CIN2 AND CIN3), MOST PROMINENTLY CADM1, EPB41L3, FAM19A4, MAL, MIR-124, PAX1 AND SOX1. OBTAINING CONSISTENT PERFORMANCE DATA FROM THE LITERATURE IS QUITE DIFFICULT BECAUSE MOST METHYLATION STUDIES USED A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT ASSAY METHODOLOGIES AND HAD INCOMPLETE AND/OR BIASED CLINICAL SPECIMEN SETS, VARYING ASSAY THRESHOLDS AND DISPARATE TARGET GENE REGIONS. THERE HAVE BEEN RELATIVELY FEW VALIDATION STUDIES OF DNA METHYLATION BIOMARKERS IN LARGE POPULATION-BASED SCREENING STUDIES, BUT AN ENCOURAGING DEVELOPMENT MORE RECENTLY IS THE EXECUTION OF WELL-DESIGNED STUDIES TO TEST THE TRUE PERFORMANCE OF THE MARKERS IN REAL-WORLD SETTINGS. METHYLATION OF HPV GENES, ESPECIALLY HPV16, HPV18, HPV31, HPV33 AND HPV45, IN DISEASE PROGRESSION HAS BEEN A MAJOR FOCUS OF RESEARCH. ELEVATED METHYLATION OF THE HPV16 L1 AND L2 OPEN READING FRAMES, IN PARTICULAR, IS ASSOCIATED WITH CIN2, CIN3 AND INVASIVE CANCER. ESSENTIALLY ALL CANCERS HAVE HIGH LEVELS OF METHYLATION FOR HUMAN GENES AND FOR DRIVER HPV TYPES, WHICH SUGGESTS THAT QUANTITATIVE METHYLATION TESTS MAY HAVE UTILITY IN PREDICTING CIN2 AND CIN3 THAT ARE LIKELY TO PROGRESS. IT IS STILL EARLY IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT OF METHYLATION BIOMARKERS, BUT ALREADY THEY ARE SHOWING STRONG PROMISE AS A UNIVERSAL AND SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO MOLECULAR TRIAGE, APPLICABLE TO ALL CANCERS, NOT JUST CANCER OF THE CERVIX. DNA METHYLATION TESTING IS BETTER THAN HPV GENOTYPING TRIAGE AND IS COMPETITIVE WITH OR COMPLEMENTARY TO OTHER APPROACHES SUCH AS CYTOLOGY AND P16 STAINING. GENOME-WIDE STUDIES ARE UNDERWAY TO SYSTEMATICALLY EXPAND METHYLATION CLASSIFIER PANELS AND FIND THE BEST COMBINATIONS OF BIOMARKERS. METHYLATION TESTING IS LIKELY TO SHOW BIG IMPROVEMENTS IN PERFORMANCE IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS. 2016 2 1350 48 DETERMINANTS OF PULMONARY EMPHYSEMA SEVERITY IN TAIWANESE PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE: AN INTEGRATED EPIGENOMIC AND AIR POLLUTANT ANALYSIS. BACKGROUND: CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE (COPD) CONTINUES TO POSE A THERAPEUTIC CHALLENGE. THIS MAY BE CONNECTED WITH ITS NOSOLOGICAL HETEROGENEITY, BROAD SYMPTOMATOLOGY SPECTRUM, VARYING DISEASE COURSE, AND THERAPY RESPONSE. THE LAST THREE DECADES HAS BEEN CHARACTERIZED BY INCREASED UNDERSTANDING OF THE PATHOBIOLOGY OF COPD, WITH ASSOCIATED ADVANCES IN DIAGNOSTIC AND THERAPEUTIC MODALITIES; HOWEVER, THE IDENTIFICATION OF PATHOGNOMONIC BIOMARKERS THAT DETERMINE DISEASE SEVERITY, AFFECT DISEASE COURSE, PREDICT CLINICAL OUTCOME, AND INFORM THERAPEUTIC STRATEGY REMAINS A WORK IN PROGRESS. OBJECTIVES: HYPOTHESIZING THAT A MULTI-VARIABLE MODEL RATHER THAN SINGLE VARIABLE MODEL MAY BE MORE PATHOGNOMONIC OF COPD EMPHYSEMA (COPD-E), THE PRESENT STUDY EXPLORED FOR DISEASE-ASSOCIATED DETERMINANTS OF DISEASE SEVERITY, AND TREATMENT SUCCESS IN TAIWANESE PATIENTS WITH COPD-E. METHODS: THE PRESENT SINGLE-CENTER, PROSPECTIVE, NON-RANDOMIZED STUDY ENROLLED 125 PATIENTS WITH COPD AND 43 HEALTHY SUBJECTS BETWEEN MARCH 2015 AND FEBRUARY 2021. ADOPTING A MULTIMODAL APPROACH, INCLUDING BIOINFORMATICS-AIDED ANALYSES AND GEOSPATIAL MODELING, WE PERFORMED AN INTEGRATED ANALYSIS OF SELECTED EPIGENETIC, CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL, GEOSPATIAL, AND AIR POLLUTANT VARIABLES, COUPLED WITH CORRELATIVE ANALYSES OF TIME-PHASED CHANGES IN PULMONARY FUNCTION INDICES AND COPD-E SEVERITY. RESULTS: OUR COPD COHORT CONSISTED OF 10 NON-, 57 CURRENT-, AND 58 EX-SMOKERS (MEDIAN AGE = 69 +/- 7.76 YEARS). BASED ON THE PERCENTAGES OF LOW ATTENUATION AREA BELOW - 950 HOUNSFIELD UNITS (%LAA(-950INSP)), 36 HAD MILD OR NO EMPHYSEMA (%LAA(-950INSP) < 6), 22 WERE MODERATE EMPHYSEMA CASES (6 /= 14). WE FOUND THAT BMI, LNC-IL7R, PM(2.5), PM(10), AND SO(2) WERE DIFFERENTIALLY ASSOCIATED WITH DISEASE SEVERITY, AND ARE HIGHLY-SPECIFIC PREDICTORS OF COPD PROGRESSION. PER GEOSPATIAL LEVELS, AREAS WITH HIGH BMI AND LNC-IL7R BUT LOW PM(2.5), PM(10), AND SO(2) WERE ASSOCIATED WITH FEWER AND AMELIORATED COPD CASES, WHILE HIGH PM(2.5), PM(10), AND SO(2) BUT LOW BMI AND LNC-IL7R CHARACTERIZED PLACES WITH MORE COPD CASES AND INDICATED EXACERBATION. THE PREDICTION PENTAD EFFECTIVELY DIFFERENTIATES PATIENTS WITH MILD/NO COPD FROM MODERATE/SEVERE COPD CASES, (MEAN AUC = 0.714) AND EXHIBITED VERY HIGH STRATIFICATION PRECISION (MEAN AUC = 0.939). CONCLUSION: COMBINED BMI, LNC-IL7R, PM(2.5), PM(10), AND SO(2) LEVELS ARE OPTIMAL CLASSIFIERS FOR ACCURATE PATIENT STRATIFICATION AND MANAGEMENT TRIAGE FOR COPD IN TAIWAN. LOW BMI, AND LNC-IL7R, WITH CONCOMITANT HIGH PM(2.5), PM(10), AND SO(2) LEVELS IS PATHOGNOMONIC OF EXACERBATED/AGGRAVATED COPD IN TAIWAN. 2021 3 3939 26 LNC-IL7R ALLEVIATES PM(2.5)-MEDIATED CELLULAR SENESCENCE AND APOPTOSIS THROUGH EZH2 RECRUITMENT IN CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE. BACKGROUND: LONG-TERM EXPOSURE TO PM(2.5) (PARTICULATE MATTER WITH AN AERODYNAMIC DIAMETER OF