Novel methylation gene panel in adjacent normal tissues predicts poor prognosis of colorectal cancer in Taiwan

BACKGROUND It is evident that current clinical criteria are suboptimal to accurately estimate patient prognosis.Studies have identified epigenetic aberrant changes as novel prognostic factors for colorectal cancer(CRC).AIM To estimate whether a methylation gene panel in different clinical stages can reflect a different prognosis.METHODS We enrolled 120 CRC patients from Tri-Service General Hospital in Taiwan and used the candidate gene approach to select six genes involved in carcinogenesis pathways.Patients were divided into two groups based on the methylation status of the six evaluated genes,namely,the<3 aberrancy group and≥3 aberrancy group.Various tumor stages were divided into two subgroups(local and advanced stages)on the basis of the pathological type of the following tissues:Tumor and adjacent normal tissues(matched normal).We assessed DNA methylation in tumors and adjacent normal tissues from CRC patients and analyzed the association between DNA methylation with different cancer stages and the prognostic outcome including time to progression(TTP)and overall survival.RESULTS We observed a significantly increasing trend of hazard ratio as the number of hypermethylated genes increased both in normal tissue and tumor tissue.The 5-year TTP survival curves showed a significant difference between the≥3 aberrancy group and the<3 aberrancy group.Compared with the<3 aberrancy group,a significantly shorter TTP was observed in the≥3 aberrancy group.We further analyzed the interaction between CRC prognosis and different cancer stages(local and advanced)according to the methylation status of the selected genes in both types of tissues.There was a significantly shorter 5-year TTP for tumors at advanced stages with the promoter methylation status of selected genes than for those with local stages.We found an interaction between cancer stages and the promoter methylation status of selected genes in both types of tissues.CONCLUSION Our data provide a significant association between the methylation markers in normal tissues with advanced stage and prognosis of CRC.We recommend using these novel markers to assist in clinical decision-making.

Bi-ortho-Carborane Unit-Riveted Perylene Monoimides:Structure-Tuned Optical Switches for Electron Transfer and Robust Thin Film-Based Fluorescence Sensors

Innovative design of sensing fluorophores possessing superior photophysical properties,porosity,and packing-resistance structures is pivotal for high performance film-based fluorescent sensors.Herein,PDCB,a perylene monoimide(PMI)derivative incorporating large spatial phenyl-carborane was synthesized and found to exhibit unexpected photophysical properties.The structurally bent PDCB exhibits not only PMI-like emission but also a red-shifted emission.In sharp contrast,PMI-CBH,a linear PMI derivative,exhibits only PMI-like emission.Furthermore,upon local excitation,PDCB undergoes a photoinduced electron transfer(PET)between PMI and phenylcarborane,resulting in a charge-transfer state.Two other PMI derivatives,PCB and PDCBP,showed a similar phenomenon.The PET rate is in the order of PCB(48 ps^(-1))>PDCB(163 ps^(-1))>PDCBP(815 ps^(-1))in toluene,which decreases with increasing steric hindrance,inferring structure reorganization prior to the PET process.As expected,a fabricated PDCB-based sensor showed excellent performance in acetone sensing.