Abstract 106: Epigenetic regulation of snoRNAs in cancer

Abstract Cancer has been associated with epigenetic abnormalities leading to deregulated expression of both coding and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) involved in oncogenesis. Among these ncRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) were identified acting as oncogenes or tumor suppressors by repressing the expression of cancer related genes. In addition, other studies suggest that other ncRNAs are similarly involved in tumorigenesis, including long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and transcribed Ultraconserved Regions (t-UCRs) by different mechanisms. Recent studies have shown the impact of small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) in the onset or progression of cancer. SnoRNAs encoded by the ncRNA GAS5 that is repressed in breast cancer or the snoRNA U50, which is mutated in breast and prostate cancer, are examples of the connection between snoRNAs and cancer. It is also known that some snoRNAs are differentially expressed in cancer in comparison with the correspondent matched tissue, indicating their possible role in this disease. This study focuses in the analysis of the DNA methylation profile associated with the differentially expression of snoRNAs in cancer considering a host gene dependent or independent regulation. To select snoRNAs regulated by DNA methylation we used two different epigenetic approaches: snoRNA expression arrays upon DNA methylation inhibition and global genomic DNA methylation arrays. Herein, we were able to indentify snoRNAs with different DNA methylation that might be involved in cancer. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 106. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-106