Promoter Hypermethylation Promotes the Binding of Transcription Factor NFATc1, Triggering Oncogenic Gene Activation in Pancreatic Cancer.

ABSTRACT: Studies have indicated that some genes involved in carcinogenesis are highly methylated in their promoter regions but nevertheless strongly transcribed. It has been proposed that transcription factors could bind specifically to methylated promoters and trigger transcription. We looked at this rather comprehensively for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and studied some cases in more detail. Some 2% of regulated genes in PDAC exhibited higher transcription coupled to promoter hypermethylation in comparison to healthy tissue. Screening 661 transcription factors, several were found to bind specifically to methylated promoters, in particular molecules of the NFAT family. One of them-NFATc1-was substantially more strongly expressed in PDAC than control tissue and exhibited a strong oncoge

SUBMITTER: Wu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8471171 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature