Effects of sulforaphane on DNA methylation patterns and transcriptome analysis in cancer and non-cancer cells

Abstract

Cancer is a growing problem for human health worldwide. The occurrence of cancer is related to population aging, as well as the prevalence of risk factors. Epigenetic and genetic alterations contribute to cancer initiation and progression. Epigenetics is a non-Mendelian inheritance of DNA modifications, which, do not affect the DNA base sequence, but may influence the expression of genes. Several studies suggest that a number of dietary compounds play a major role as epigenetic modulators against the initiation and the progression of several types of cancer. Sulforaphane, a natural isothiocyanate from cruciferous vegetables, is a well-known histone deacetylases inhibitor. However, the influence of sulforaphane in DNA methylation and chromatin condensation status is not fully clear. New methods and progress have been made in order to identify generally silenced genes, and mRNA expression changes. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the overall DNA methylation profile of cancer and non-cancer cells after treatment of sulforaphane using high-throughput technologies. In order to find regions of interest that are epigenetically modulated by sulforaphane, the RRBS (reduced representation bisulfite sequencing) will be performed. Moreover, to determine gene expression dynamics and transcriptome changes in cancer and non-cancer cells after treatment of sulforaphane by RNA-seq. Finally, to investigate the influence of sulforaphane with proteins related to chromatin condensation by chromatin-immunoprecipitation followed by a high-throughput DNA sequencing (ChIP-Seq). These studies will provide valuable and actionable information about the genome-wide influence of sulforaphane and may add relevance of sulforaphane promising cancer prevention agent.