Mediation of the malignant biological characteristics of gastric cancer cells by the methylated CpG islands in RNF180 DNA promoter

We previously demonstrated that the methylation of ring finger protein 180 (RNF180) DNA promoter was specific to gastric cancer tissues. We reported that four hypermethylated CpG islands, namely, CpG-116, CpG-80, CpG+97, and CpG+102, in RNF180 promoter were significantly associated with the postoperative overall survival of gastric cancer patients. Correlation analysis revealed that the methylated status of CpG islands was significantly associated with the lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer. We formulated four types of MGC-803 cells with the specific demethylation of one of the four CpG islands through vector transfection method. Conventional detections for the biological characteristics of cancer cells showed that 1) the methylation of CpG+102 island in RNF180 DNA promoter could remarkably influence the comprehensively malignant biological characteristics of gastric cancer cells, including their proliferation, invasion, cell cycle, anti-apoptosis, and tumorigenicity. 2) The CpG+97 island, in addition to the CpG+102 island, should be considered as the other key methylated locus in RNF180 DNA promoter to mediate the malignant biological characteristics of gastric cancer cells. The methylated status of the key CpG islands of RNF180 DNA promoter may be used to predict the variations of the malignant biological characteristics of gastric cancer cells. The proposed method is a promising molecular therapy for gastric cancer.