Published in Epigenomics
Aim: To identify novel competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network related to patients prognosis in breast cancer. Materials & methods: Dysregulated mRNA based on intersection of three Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets were analyzed by bioinformatics. Results: In total 72 upregulated and 208 downregulated genes were identifi...
Published in Epigenomics
Aim: Smoking strongly influences DNA methylation, with current and never smokers exhibiting different methylation profiles. Methods: To advance the practical applicability of the smoking-associated methylation signals, we used machine learning methodology to train a classifier for smoking status prediction. Results: We show the prediction performan...
Published in Epigenomics
Francesco Crea speaks to Lucy Chard, Commissioning Editor. Dr Crea's lab studies the role of epigenetic factors and noncoding RNA in cancer initiation and progression. While working at the National Cancer Institute (USA), Dr Crea has demonstrated that polycomb-targeting drugs eradicate prostate cancer stem cells. While working at the BC Cancer Agen...
Published in Epigenomics
Published in Epigenomics
Aim: The hygiene hypothesis states that a lack of infection in early-life suppresses immune system development, and is linked to respiratory allergy (RA) and childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) risk. Little is known about underlying mechanisms, but DNA methylation is altered in RA and ALL, and in response to infection. We investigated if a...
Published in Epigenomics
Aim: Cigarette smoking influences DNA methylation genome wide, in newborns from pregnancy exposure and in adults from personal smoking. Whether a unique methylation signature exists for in utero exposure in newborns is unknown. Materials & methods: We separately meta-analyzed newborn blood DNA methylation (assessed using Illumina450k Beadchip), in ...
Published in Epigenomics
Aim: We investigated associations of prenatal socioeconomic status (SES) with DNA methylation at birth, and to explore persistence of associations into early (∼3 years) and mid-childhood (∼7 years) among 609 mother-child pairs in a Boston-area prebirth cohort. Materials & methods: First, we created a prenatal SES index comprising individual- and ne...
Published in Epigenomics
Epigenetic regulation of gene expression plays a key role in affecting human health and diseases with particular regard to human reproduction. The major concern in this field is represented by the epigenetic modifications in the embryo and the increased risk of long-life disorders induced by the use of assisted reproduction techniques, able to affe...
Published in Epigenomics
Aim: To investigate DNA methylation changes in placenta tissues associated with small for gestational age (SGA). Materials & methods: A prospective cohort study consisting of 1292 pregnant women from China (including 39 SGA with placenta tissues) was performed, microarray and pyrosequencing were conducted. Results: Total 2012 methylation variable p...
Published in Epigenomics
Aim: Identification of microRNAs (miRNAs) associated with atherosclerosis may unravel novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers. We studied miRNAs differentially expressed between coronary atherosclerotic plaques (CAP) and healthy arteries. Materials & methods: Paired CAP and internal mammary arteries (IMA) were collected from 14 coronary artery dis...
