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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virol. Feb 12, 2018; 7(1): 1-9
Published online Feb 12, 2018. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v7.i1.1
Retinoic acid receptor beta promoter methylation and risk of cervical cancer
Chaninya Wongwarangkana, Nasamon Wanlapakorn, Jira Chansaenroj, Yong Poovorawan
Chaninya Wongwarangkana, Nasamon Wanlapakorn, Jira Chansaenroj, Yong Poovorawan, Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Supported by Research Chair Grant from the National Science and Technology Development Agency, No. P-15-50004; the Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology, Chulalongkorn Unversity and King Chulalongkourn Memorial Hospital, No. GCE 5900930-005; and the Rachadapisek Sompote Fund of Chulalongkorn University for postdoctoral fellowships to Chaninya Wongwarangkana.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yong Poovorawan, MD, Professor, Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, 1873 Rama IV Road Patumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. yong.p@chula.ac.th
Telephone: +66-2-2564909 Fax: +66-2-2564929
Received: October 6, 2017
Peer-review started: October 6, 2017
First decision: November 7, 2017
Revised: November 8, 2017
Accepted: December 6, 2017
Article in press: December 6, 2017
Published online: February 12, 2018
Processing time: 125 Days and 7.5 Hours
Abstract

Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of death in women worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Human papillomavirus has been reported as one of the key etiologic factors in cervical carcinoma. Likewise, epigenetic aberrations have ability to regulate cancer pathogenesis and progression. Recent research suggested that methylation has been detected already at precancerous stages, which methylation markers may have significant value in cervical cancer screening. The retinoic acid receptor beta (RARβ) gene, a potential tumor suppressor gene, is usually expressed in normal epithelial tissue. Methylation of CpG islands in the promoter region of the RARβ gene has been found to be associated with the development of cervical cancer. To investigate whether RARβ methylation is a potential biomarker that predicts the progression of invasive cancer, we reviewed 14 previously published articles related to RARβ methylation. The majority of them demonstrated that the frequency of RARβ promoter methylation was significantly correlated with the severity of cervical epithelium abnormalities. However, methylation of a single gene may not represent the best approach for predicting disease prognosis. Analyzing combinations of aberrant methylation of multiple genes may increase the sensitivity, and thus this approach may serve as a better tool for predicting disease prognosis.

Keywords: Methylation; Cervical cancer; Retinoic acid receptor beta; Human papillomavirus; Risk correlation; Promoter

Core tip: The frequency of retinoic acid receptor beta promoter methylation was significantly correlated with the severity of cervical epithelium abnormalities. However, a single gene may not represent the best approach for predicting disease prognosis. Thus, combinations of aberrant methylation of multiple genes may as a better tool for predicting disease.