Methylation-specific PCR Test for Early Screening and Early Diagnosis of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Summary

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is one of the most common malignant tumors in China, with the progress of radiochemical comprehensive treatment, early stage The 5-year survival rate of nasopharyngeal cancer is more than 95%. However, due to the hidden site of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and the lack of obvious early clinical symptoms, more than 70% of the 87,000 newly diagnosed cases each year belong to the advanced stage of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and the 5-year survival rate of advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma is only about 70%. Therefore, early screening and diagnosis and early treatment are the key to improve the survival of patients with nasopharyngeal cancer. Selecting a sensitive and accurate biomarker for nasopharyngeal cancer and relying on a simple and feasible examination method for sampling detection will greatly improve the early diagnosis rate of nasopharyngeal cancer.

DNA methylation is a form of chemical modification of DNA that can be done without altering the DNA sequence changes in genetic expression. The main role of DNA methylation is to regulate gene expression. Tumor suppressor genes play the functions of regulating cell differentiation, maturation and programmed death. However, if methylation of promoter region occurs, the expression of tumor suppressor genes is inhibited and the function is lost, resulting in cells remaining in the stage of low differentiation and proliferation, inhibition of apoptosis, formation of blood vessels by cluster cells, loss of cell adhesion, and formation of tumors. It can be seen that DNA methylation occurs in the early stage of tumor, and this biological feature makes it a strong application prospect in early tumor screening.

There are many methods to detect DNA Methylation, among which methylation-specific PCR (MSP) can easily and quickly determine the methylation status of a specific gene, meeting the affordable, convenient, and easy to generalize characteristics required for screening tests. In combination with previous MSP experiments and previous reports, we found that the methylation levels of promoter fragments of H4C6, Septin9 and RASSF1A genes in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues were significantly higher than those in healthy human nasopharyngeal tissues. This suggests that methylation of these three genes may be used as biomarkers for early screening and diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Therefore, this study intends to detect the methylation status of H4C6, Septin9 and RASSF1A genes based on MSP method with simple operation and low cost. Using clinicopathological diagnosis as the gold standard, the value of this gene methylation index in early screening and early diagnosis of nasopharyngeal cancer was verified, providing a new detection index and method for improving the early diagnosis rate of nasopharyngeal cancer.

Conditions

• Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
• Early Diagnosis of Cancer

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Methylation-specific PCR

Methylation-specific PCR is the simplest and quickest method for qualitative detection of methylation status. The unmethylated C base is converted to U by bisulfite conversion, which is subsequently amplified by PCR with primers (methylation-specific and non-methylation-specific primers) and subsequently detected by agarose gel electrophoresis or a probe. The key to MSP is to design PCR primers for specific gene regions. The research team of this project has previously found the sequence sites of methylation of H4C6, Septin9 and RASSF1A genes in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues through methylation sequencing, and designed specific MSP amplification primers and probes accordingly, which can perform methylation detection easily and quickly.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Guangdong Women and Children Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Affiliated Cancer Hospital & Institute of Guangzhou Medical University

  collaborator OTHER

• Sun Yat-sen University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Yi-Jun Hua, Phd · Sun Yat-sen University

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-06-01

Primary Completion

2023-09-30

Completion

2024-03-01

Countries

• China

Study Locations