Epigenetic mechanisms of the BRAF mutation

The BRAF mutation is involved in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), the most common endocrine malignancy. Hou et al. performed a genome-wide DNA methylation analysis on thyroid cancer cells to assess whether there are epigenetic mechanisms involved in the role of BRAF in PTC tumorigenesis. They found that the BRAF mutation has numerous methylation targets, many of which are genes which have metabolic and cellular functions. By performing shRNA knockdown on six genes, they were able to demonstrate that two played direct oncogenic roles: HMGB2 is involved in PTC cell proliferation and FGD1 in cell invasion. Hou et al. (2011) Endocrine-Related Cancer 18 687-697.

Read the full article at: DOI:10.1530/ERC-11-0212.