DNA Methylation Alterations in Fractionally Irradiated Rats and Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Radiotherapy

Magy Sallam, Mohamed Ahmed, Rafi Benotmane, Anne P.G. Crijns, Daan Spoor, Filip Van Nieuwerburgh, Dieter Deforce, Sarah Baatout, An Aerts, Raghda Ramadan

Research outputpeer-review

Abstract

Radiation-Induced CardioVascular Disease (RICVD) is an important concern in thoracic radiotherapy with complex underlying pathophysiology. Recently, we proposed DNA methylation as a possible mechanism contributing to RICVD. The current study investigates DNA methylation in heartirradiated rats and radiotherapy-treated breast cancer (BC) patients. Rats received fractionated whole heart X-irradiation (0, 0.92, 6.9 and 27.6 Gy total doses) and blood was collected after 1.5, 3, 7 and 12 months. Global and gene-specific methylation of the samples were evaluated; and gene expression of selected differentially methylated regions (DMRs) was validated in rat and BC patient blood. In rats receiving an absorbed dose of 27.6 Gy, DNA methylation alterations were detected up to 7 months with differential expression of cardiac-relevant DMRs. Of those, SLMAP showed increased expression at 1.5 months, which correlated with hypomethylation. Furthermore, E2F6 inversely correlated with a decreased global longitudinal strain. In BC patients, E2F6 and SLMAP exhibited differential expression directly and 6 months after radiotherapy, respectively. This study describes a systemic radiation fingerprint at the DNA methylation level, elucidating a possible association of DNA methylation to RICVD pathophysiology, to be validated in future mechanistic studies.
Original languageEnglish
Article number16214
Number of pages21
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume23
Issue number24
DOIs
StatePublished - 19 Dec 2022

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