Extensive intratumor regional epigenetic heterogeneity in clear cell renal cell carcinoma targets kidney enhancers and is associated with poor outcome

© 2023. The Author(s)..

BACKGROUND: Clear cell renal cell cancer (ccRCC), the 8th leading cause of cancer-related death in the US, is challenging to treat due to high level intratumoral heterogeneity (ITH) and the paucity of druggable driver mutations. CcRCC is unusual for its high frequency of epigenetic regulator mutations, such as the SETD2 histone H3 lysine 36 trimethylase (H3K36me3), and low frequency of traditional cancer driver mutations. In this work, we examined epigenetic level ITH and defined its relationships with pathologic features, aspects of tumor biology, and SETD2 mutations.

RESULTS: A multi-region sampling approach coupled with EPIC DNA methylation arrays was conducted on a cohort of normal kidney and ccRCC. ITH was assessed using DNA methylation (5mC) and CNV-based entropy and Euclidian distances. We found elevated 5mC heterogeneity and entropy in ccRCC relative to normal kidney. Variable CpGs are highly enriched in enhancer regions. Using intra-class correlation coefficient analysis, we identified CpGs that segregate tumor regions according to clinical phenotypes related to tumor aggressiveness. SETD2 wild-type tumors overall possess greater 5mC and copy number ITH than SETD2 mutant tumor regions, suggesting SETD2 loss contributes to a distinct epigenome. Finally, coupling our regional data with TCGA, we identified a 5mC signature that links regions within a primary tumor with metastatic potential.

CONCLUSION: Taken together, our results reveal marked levels of epigenetic ITH in ccRCC that are linked to clinically relevant tumor phenotypes and could translate into novel epigenetic biomarkers.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:15

Enthalten in:

Clinical epigenetics - 15(2023), 1 vom: 29. Apr., Seite 71

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

El Khoury, Louis Y [VerfasserIn]
Pan, Xiaoyu [VerfasserIn]
Hlady, Ryan A [VerfasserIn]
Wagner, Ryan T [VerfasserIn]
Shaikh, Shafiq [VerfasserIn]
Wang, Liguo [VerfasserIn]
Humphreys, Mitchell R [VerfasserIn]
Castle, Erik P [VerfasserIn]
Stanton, Melissa L [VerfasserIn]
Ho, Thai H [VerfasserIn]
Robertson, Keith D [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

5mC
CNV
CcRCC
Clear cell renal cell cancer
DNA methylation
Epigenomics
H3K36me3
Intra-tumor heterogeneity
Journal Article
Metastasis
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
SETD2

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 01.05.2023

Date Revised 17.05.2023

published: Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1186/s13148-023-01471-3

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM356239470