Project description:Cervical mucus was collected from 86 patients with a normal cervix, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), or adenocarcinoma (AD). 76 candidates of miRNAs were selected according to criteria such as absolute value of the signal intensity included more than 20 and the ratio of the SCC/normal or AD/normal included more than four.
Project description:Serum was collected from 63 patients of Group A with a normal cervix, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), or adenocarcinoma (AD) and 33 patients of Group B with a normal cervix or SCC. Three miRNAs (miR-16-5p, -223-3p and -451a) were commonly down-regulated in the Group A and the Group B.
Project description:Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), also known as cervical dysplasia, is premalignant lesions of the cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) that shows abnormal growth of squamous cells in the cervix epithelium. Given the evidence suggesting that differences may exist between CIN and CSCC, we hypothesize that progression may be mediated by subpopulation selection or by acquisition of additional alterations, including gene mutations or chromosomal alterations. In this study, we analyzed cervical CIN, microinvasive carcinoma (MIC) and CSCC by whole-exome sequencing and array-comparative genomic hybridization (array-CGH) and found that CIN genomes harbored fewer mutations (especially fewer driver mutations) and copy number alterations (CNAs), suggesting that additional genomic alterations might burst onto the CIN genome at the final stage of CIN progression to CSCC or an early stage of CSCC.
Project description:Cervical mucus is a viscous fluid functioning as a uterine cervix plug. It is formed and produced by cervical glands located in the cervix. During ovulation, cervical mucus starts to become less viscous, which is a good window for non-invasive sampling. Our study focuses on the proteomic characterization of cervical mucus, which may thus act as a non-invasively acquired source of biomarkers for diseases and physiological conditions of the female genital tract. Our study aimed at two aims - the first is to optimize a proteomic workflow of cervical mucus processing. The second aim is to assess differences in the proteomic composition of cervical mucus in natural ovulatory cycles and IVF cycles with controlled ovarian hyperstimulation. The sampling was done in cooperation with women undergoing intrauterine insemination in a natural ovulatory cycle and women undergoing controlled ovarian hyperstimulation for IVF. The optimization of proteomic workflow including an analysis on an Orbitrap mass spectrometer was performed. The results revealed the protein composition and the differences of the cervical mucus between natural and stimulated uterus.
Project description:Analysis of various of up-regulated and down-regulated genes in Normal Cervical mucosa, Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and Cervical squamous cell carcinoma. The report provides a data analysis methodology for identification of co-expressed gene patterns, as emerging clusters, in global transcriptome of cervical mucosal pre-malignant and malignant conditions in comparison to their normal counterparts. Microarray based study of global gene expression is often used to extract molecular signatures underlying cancer progression. Such endeavors endorse self organizing map, a type of artificial neural network to analyze high dimensional pre-processed transcriptome data to segregate hotspot genes in component plane for disease subtypes. This report provides a data analysis methodology for identification of coexpressed gene patterns, as emerging clusters, in global transcriptome of oral and cervical mucosal premalignant and malignant conditions in comparison to their normal counterparts. Four exclusive cluster patterns, each involving 100 − 300 genes, were identified from component planes for oral study groups. Gene expression associated with each pattern belonged to 32 biological processes. Analysis on cervical biopsies, where cancer was compared to cervical interepithelial neoplasia and normal counterpart, it revealed three non-overlapping patterns for each condition. In cervical interepithelial neoplasia an intermediate pattern with nine different dominant functional processes was identified, whereas, in cervical squamous cell carcinoma pattern showed dominance for seven different functions. This analysis demonstrated utility of self organizing map to capture dominant enriched patterns as visual plots and revealed six common biological processes like transcription and RNA processing, cytoskeleton reorganization, angiogenesis, immunity, neuron signalling, and connective tissue remodelling in the pathogenesis of oral and cervical cancers. In fact it could provide an intuitive understanding of molecular course in carcinogenesis and may contribute for combinatorial biomarker discovery.
Project description:In most cases human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are cleared from the cervical cells by the immune system itself, but in a few cases, where there is persistent HPV infection, it can lead to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) progression and ultimately invasive cervical carcinoma. The cytopathic effect is in general accompanied by chronic inflammation, which produces inflammation cytokines that contribute to DNA damage, and at the same time, aberrations occurred in the host DNA repair mechanisms, thus lead to HPV genomic integration into the host cells which propels cell immortalization. In this study, we reported the genome-wide expression profiles of both microRNAs (miRNAs) and mRNAs from 24 cervical samples with consecutive stages of normal, CIN I (mild dysplasia) and CIN III (severe dysplasia and carcinoma in situ), and presented the SIG++ algorithm which is founded on the evolution process of intermolecular regulation change during disease progression, to identify the significant change of miRNA-mRNA regulations rather than the expression change, across different disease stages, thereupon elucidating the molecular mechanisms of increasing host genomic instability as disease progresses. As reconstructing miRNA differential networks, we found that at each stage of CIN, there respectively exists specific miRNA regulations mediating chronic inflammation persistence, genome instability and cell survival, which coordinately carrys out the integration of HPV genomes into the host cell genomes, and finally results in cell immortalization. Beyond the specific implications for cervical carcinogenesis, this work establishes a new framework for studying the biology of miRNAs in pathogenesis from the perspective of miRNA differential regulation, and helps ensure the comprehensiveness of miRNA-mediated genetic regulatory pathways. There are totally 24 clinical samples in this study comprises three stages: 7 normal cervix samples (HPV-), 9 CIN I samples (HPV+) and CIN III samples (HPV+), where normal refers to the adjacent tissue of early lesions. For each sample, its total RNA was extracted and purified, then separately hybridized to Illumina HumanHT-12 V4.0 expression beadchip (gene symbol) and Illumina Human v2 MicroRNA Expression BeadChip, for examining the expression profiles of mRNAs and miRNAs, respectively.
Project description:In most cases human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are cleared from the cervical cells by the immune system itself, but in a few cases, where there is persistent HPV infection, it can lead to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) progression and ultimately invasive cervical carcinoma. The cytopathic effect is in general accompanied by chronic inflammation, which produces inflammation cytokines that contribute to DNA damage, and at the same time, aberrations occurred in the host DNA repair mechanisms, thus lead to HPV genomic integration into the host cells which propels cell immortalization. In this study, we reported the genome-wide expression profiles of both microRNAs (miRNAs) and mRNAs from 24 cervical samples with consecutive stages of normal, CIN I (mild dysplasia) and CIN III (severe dysplasia and carcinoma in situ), and presented the SIG++ algorithm which is founded on the evolution process of intermolecular regulation change during disease progression, to identify the significant change of miRNA-mRNA regulations rather than the expression change, across different disease stages, thereupon elucidating the molecular mechanisms of increasing host genomic instability as disease progresses. As reconstructing miRNA differential networks, we found that at each stage of CIN, there respectively exists specific miRNA regulations mediating chronic inflammation persistence, genome instability and cell survival, which coordinately carrys out the integration of HPV genomes into the host cell genomes, and finally results in cell immortalization. Beyond the specific implications for cervical carcinogenesis, this work establishes a new framework for studying the biology of miRNAs in pathogenesis from the perspective of miRNA differential regulation, and helps ensure the comprehensiveness of miRNA-mediated genetic regulatory pathways.
Project description:Epigenetic modifications, such as aberrant DNA promoter methylation is frequently observed in cervical cancer. Identification of hypermethylated regions maybe useful for discrimination between normal cervical epithelium and high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2/3) or worse may improve current cervical cancer population-based screening programs. In this study, the DNA methylome of high-grade CIN lesions were characterised using genome-wide methylation screening to identify potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of cervical neoplasia. Methyl-DNA Immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) combined with DNA microarray was used to compare DNA methylation profiles of epithelial cells derived from high-grade CIN lesions with normal cervical epithelium resulting in the identification of hypermethylated differentially methylated regions (DMRs). Validation of 9 selected DMRs by MSP or BSP in cervical tissue revealed methylation in 63.2-94.7% high-grade CIN and in 59.3-100% cervical carcinomas. QMSP for the two most significant high-grade CIN-specific methylation markers was applied exploring test performance in a large series of cervical scrapings. Frequency and relative level of methylation were significantly different between normal and cancer samples (p<0.001). Clinical validation of both markers in cervical scrapings from patients referred with an abnormal cervical smear, confirmed that frequency and relative level of methylation were related with increasing severity of the underlying CIN lesion (p<0.001) and the ROC analysis was discriminative (p<0.005). These possible methylation markers represent COL25A1 and KATNAL2 promoters and their observed increased methylation upon progression is in agreement with their biological function (cytoskeleton regulation). In conclusion, our newly identified hypermethylated DMRs represent specific DNA methylation patterns in high-grade CIN lesions and could be potential biomarkers for early detection. Epigenetic modifications, such as aberrant DNA promoter methylation is frequently observed in cervical cancer. Identification of hypermethylated regions maybe useful for discrimination between normal cervical epithelium and high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2/3) or worse may improve current cervical cancer population-based screening programs. In this study, the DNA methylome of high-grade CIN lesions were characterised using genome-wide methylation screening to identify potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of cervical neoplasia. Methyl-DNA Immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) combined with DNA microarray was used to compare DNA methylation profiles of epithelial cells derived from high-grade CIN lesions with normal cervical epithelium resulting in the identification of hypermethylated differentially methylated regions (DMRs). Validation of 9 selected DMRs by MSP or BSP in cervical tissue revealed methylation in 63.2-94.7% high-grade CIN and in 59.3-100% cervical carcinomas. QMSP for the two most significant high-grade CIN-specific methylation markers was applied exploring test performance in a large series of cervical scrapings. Frequency and relative level of methylation were significantly different between normal and cancer samples (p<0.001). Clinical validation of both markers in cervical scrapings from patients referred with an abnormal cervical smear, confirmed that frequency and relative level of methylation were related with increasing severity of the underlying CIN lesion (p<0.001) and the ROC analysis was discriminative (p<0.005). These possible methylation markers represent COL25A1 and KATNAL2 promoters and their observed increased methylation upon progression is in agreement with their biological function (cytoskeleton regulation). In conclusion, our newly identified hypermethylated DMRs represent specific DNA methylation patterns in high-grade CIN lesions and could be potential biomarkers for early detection.