Abstract
Cancer-testis (CT) genes are typically expressed in the testes; however, they have been linked to aberrant expression in a variety of malignancies. MAGE-B family genes are an example of CT genes. Therefore, the overarching objective of this study was to examine the expressions of MAGE-B family genes in several patients with colon cancer (CC) to see if they might be employed as cancer biomarkers in the early phases of cancer detection and to improve treatment. In this investigation, RT-PCR was used to analyze MAGE-B family genes in neighboring normal colon (NC) tissue from 10 CC patients. In addition, the effect of DNA demethylation on the expression status of the MAGE-B1 gene was evaluated by RT-PCR in HCT116 and Caco-2 cells and by qRT-PCR for HCT116 only after treating both CC cell lines with varying concentrations of 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (1.0, 5.0, and 10.0 μM) for 48 or 72 hours. All MAGE-B family genes except for MAGE-B1 showed weak bands in several samples of NC tissues: MAGE-B2, MAGE-B3, MAGE-B4, MAGE-B5, and MAGE-B6 genes were observed in 40%, 50%, 40%, 30%, and 60% of the NC samples, respectively. Nonetheless, they had strong bands in multiple samples of CC tissues, with 70%, 90%, 60%, 50%, and 90% of the CC samples, respectively. Interestingly, MAGE-B1 was detected in 60% of CC tissues but not in NC tissues, suggesting that it is a potential biomarker for early CC detection. MAGE-B1 expression was not observed in either untreated or DMSO-treated HCT116 cells after 48 or 72 hours of treatment. However, according to the RT-PCR and qRT-PCR results, the MAGE-B1 gene was overexpressed in the HCT116 cells treated with three different concentrations of 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine. This shows that demethylation plays a crucial role in MAGE-B1 expression activation.