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Human Endogenous Retroviruses Long Terminal Repeat Methylation, Transcription, and Protein Expression in Human Colon Cancer

Colon cancer is the fourth most common malignancy in both incidence and mortality in developed countries. Infectious agents are among the risk factors for colon cancer. Variations in human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) transcript and protein levels are associated with several types of cancers, but fe...

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Autores principales: Dolci, Maria, Favero, Chiara, Toumi, Wafa, Favi, Evaldo, Tarantini, Letizia, Signorini, Lucia, Basile, Giuseppe, Bollati, Valentina, D'Alessandro, Sarah, Bagnoli, Pietro, Ferrante, Pasquale, Delbue, Serena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7653092/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33194657
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2020.569015
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author Dolci, Maria
Favero, Chiara
Toumi, Wafa
Favi, Evaldo
Tarantini, Letizia
Signorini, Lucia
Basile, Giuseppe
Bollati, Valentina
D'Alessandro, Sarah
Bagnoli, Pietro
Ferrante, Pasquale
Delbue, Serena
author_facet Dolci, Maria
Favero, Chiara
Toumi, Wafa
Favi, Evaldo
Tarantini, Letizia
Signorini, Lucia
Basile, Giuseppe
Bollati, Valentina
D'Alessandro, Sarah
Bagnoli, Pietro
Ferrante, Pasquale
Delbue, Serena
author_sort Dolci, Maria
collection PubMed
description Colon cancer is the fourth most common malignancy in both incidence and mortality in developed countries. Infectious agents are among the risk factors for colon cancer. Variations in human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) transcript and protein levels are associated with several types of cancers, but few studies address HERV expression in colon cancer. Fifty-eight patients with advanced-stage colon cancer were enrolled in this study. HERV-H, -K (HML-2), -P LTRs, Alu, and LINE-1 methylation levels and transcription of HERV-H, -K (HML-2), and -P env and HERV-K pol genes in normal adjacent and tumor tissues were investigated by pyrosequencing and RT-qPCR, respectively. Expression of the HERV-K (HML-2) Pol and Env proteins in selected tissues was examined by Western blotting. Associations between HERV transcript expression and methylation levels and between clinical characteristics and HERV expression were evaluated. Compared to adjacent normal tissues, LINE-1 was hypomethylated in tumor tissues (p < 0.05), whereas Alu, HERV-K (HML-2), and -H LTRs showed a decreasing trend in tumor tissue compared to normal tissue, though without a significant difference. The transcription levels of HERV env and pol genes were similar. However, the HERV-K (HML-2) Pol protein was more highly expressed (p < 0.01) in surrounding normal tissues, but the HERV-K (HML-2) Env protein was only expressed in tumor tissues. Although HERV LTR methylation and gene expression did not show significant differences between tumor and normal tissues, HERV protein expression differed greatly. Pol protein expression in normal cells may induce reverse transcription and subsequent integration into the host genome, likely favoring cell transformation; in contrast, the Env protein in tumor tissue may contribute to cancer progression through cell-to-cell fusion.
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spelling pubmed-76530922020-11-13 Human Endogenous Retroviruses Long Terminal Repeat Methylation, Transcription, and Protein Expression in Human Colon Cancer Dolci, Maria Favero, Chiara Toumi, Wafa Favi, Evaldo Tarantini, Letizia Signorini, Lucia Basile, Giuseppe Bollati, Valentina D'Alessandro, Sarah Bagnoli, Pietro Ferrante, Pasquale Delbue, Serena Front Oncol Oncology Colon cancer is the fourth most common malignancy in both incidence and mortality in developed countries. Infectious agents are among the risk factors for colon cancer. Variations in human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) transcript and protein levels are associated with several types of cancers, but few studies address HERV expression in colon cancer. Fifty-eight patients with advanced-stage colon cancer were enrolled in this study. HERV-H, -K (HML-2), -P LTRs, Alu, and LINE-1 methylation levels and transcription of HERV-H, -K (HML-2), and -P env and HERV-K pol genes in normal adjacent and tumor tissues were investigated by pyrosequencing and RT-qPCR, respectively. Expression of the HERV-K (HML-2) Pol and Env proteins in selected tissues was examined by Western blotting. Associations between HERV transcript expression and methylation levels and between clinical characteristics and HERV expression were evaluated. Compared to adjacent normal tissues, LINE-1 was hypomethylated in tumor tissues (p < 0.05), whereas Alu, HERV-K (HML-2), and -H LTRs showed a decreasing trend in tumor tissue compared to normal tissue, though without a significant difference. The transcription levels of HERV env and pol genes were similar. However, the HERV-K (HML-2) Pol protein was more highly expressed (p < 0.01) in surrounding normal tissues, but the HERV-K (HML-2) Env protein was only expressed in tumor tissues. Although HERV LTR methylation and gene expression did not show significant differences between tumor and normal tissues, HERV protein expression differed greatly. Pol protein expression in normal cells may induce reverse transcription and subsequent integration into the host genome, likely favoring cell transformation; in contrast, the Env protein in tumor tissue may contribute to cancer progression through cell-to-cell fusion. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-10-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7653092/ /pubmed/33194657 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2020.569015 Text en Copyright © 2020 Dolci, Favero, Toumi, Favi, Tarantini, Signorini, Basile, Bollati, D'Alessandro, Bagnoli, Ferrante and Delbue. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Oncology
Dolci, Maria
Favero, Chiara
Toumi, Wafa
Favi, Evaldo
Tarantini, Letizia
Signorini, Lucia
Basile, Giuseppe
Bollati, Valentina
D'Alessandro, Sarah
Bagnoli, Pietro
Ferrante, Pasquale
Delbue, Serena
Human Endogenous Retroviruses Long Terminal Repeat Methylation, Transcription, and Protein Expression in Human Colon Cancer
title Human Endogenous Retroviruses Long Terminal Repeat Methylation, Transcription, and Protein Expression in Human Colon Cancer
title_full Human Endogenous Retroviruses Long Terminal Repeat Methylation, Transcription, and Protein Expression in Human Colon Cancer
title_fullStr Human Endogenous Retroviruses Long Terminal Repeat Methylation, Transcription, and Protein Expression in Human Colon Cancer
title_full_unstemmed Human Endogenous Retroviruses Long Terminal Repeat Methylation, Transcription, and Protein Expression in Human Colon Cancer
title_short Human Endogenous Retroviruses Long Terminal Repeat Methylation, Transcription, and Protein Expression in Human Colon Cancer
title_sort human endogenous retroviruses long terminal repeat methylation, transcription, and protein expression in human colon cancer
topic Oncology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7653092/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33194657
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2020.569015
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