Genome-wide methylation profiling identify hypermethylated HOXL subclass genes as potential markers for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma detection

Background: Numerous studies have revealed aberrant DNA methylation in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, they often focused on the partial genome, which resulted in an inadequate understanding of the shaped methylation features and the lack of available methylation markers for this disease.

Methods: The current study investigated the methylation profiles between ESCC and paired normal samples using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) data and obtained a group of differentially methylated CpGs (DMC), differentially methylated regions (DMR), and differentially methylated genes (DMG). The DMGs were then verified in independent datasets and Sanger sequencing in our custom samples. Finally, we attempted to evaluate the performance of these genes as methylation markers for the classification of ESCC.

Results: We obtained 438,558 DMCs, 15,462 DMRs, and 1568 DMGs. The four significantly enriched gene families of DMGs were CD molecules, NKL subclass, HOXL subclass, and Zinc finger C2H2-type. The HOXL subclass homeobox genes were observed extensively hypermethylated in ESCC. The HOXL-score estimated by HOXC10 and HOXD1 methylation, whose methylation status were then confirmed by sanger sequencing in our custom ESCC samples, showed good ability in discriminating ESCC from normal samples.

Conclusions: We observed widespread hypomethylation events in ESCC, and the hypermethylated HOXL subclass homeobox genes presented promising applications for the early detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.