Quantification of unmethylated Alu (QUAlu): a tool to assess global hypomethylation in routine clinical samples.

ABSTRACT: Hypomethylation of DNA is a hallmark of cancer and its analysis as tumor biomarker has been proposed, but its determination in clinical settings is hampered by lack of standardized methodologies. Here, we present QUAlu (Quantification of Unmethylated Alu), a new technique to estimate the Percentage of UnMethylated Alu (PUMA) as a surrogate for global hypomethylation. QUAlu consists in the measurement by qPCR of Alu repeats after digestion of genomic DNA with isoschizomers with differential sensitivity to DNA methylation. QUAlu performance has been evaluated for reproducibility, trueness and specificity, and validated by deep sequencing. As a proof of use, QUAlu has been applied to a broad variety of pathological examination specimens covering five cancer types. Major findings of the prelim

SUBMITTER: Buj R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4891138 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature