Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Profiles in Community Members Exposed to the World Trade Center Disaster

Alan A. Arslan, Stephanie Tuminello, Lei Yang, Yian Zhang, Nedim Durmus, Matija Snuderl, Adriana Heguy, Anne Zeleniuch-Jacquotte, Yongzhao Shao and Joan Reibman
Additional contact information
Alan A. Arslan: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Stephanie Tuminello: Department of Population Health, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Lei Yang: Department of Population Health, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Yian Zhang: Department of Population Health, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Nedim Durmus: Department of Medicine, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Matija Snuderl: Department of Pathology, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Adriana Heguy: Department of Pathology, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Anne Zeleniuch-Jacquotte: Department of Population Health, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Yongzhao Shao: Department of Population Health, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Joan Reibman: Department of Medicine, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-13

Abstract: The primary goal of this pilot study was to assess feasibility of studies among local community members to address the hypothesis that complex exposures to the World Trade Center (WTC) dust and fumes resulted in long-term epigenetic changes. We enrolled 18 WTC-exposed cancer-free women from the WTC Environmental Health Center (WTC EHC) who agreed to donate blood samples during their standard clinical visits. As a reference WTC unexposed group, we randomly selected 24 age-matched cancer-free women from an existing prospective cohort who donated blood samples before 11 September 2001. The global DNA methylation analyses were performed using Illumina Infinium MethylationEpic arrays. Statistical analyses were performed using R Bioconductor package. Functional genomic analyses were done by mapping the top 5000 differentially expressed CpG sites to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) Pathway database. Among cancer-free subjects, we observed substantial methylation differences between WTC-exposed and unexposed women. The top 15 differentially methylated gene probes included BCAS2, OSGIN1, BMI1, EEF1A2, SPTBN5, CHD8, CDCA7L, AIDA, DDN, SNORD45C, ZFAND6, ARHGEF7, UBXN8, USF1, and USP12. Several cancer-related pathways were enriched in the WTC-exposed subjects, including endocytosis, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), viral carcinogenesis, as well as Ras-associated protein-1 (Rap1) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling. The study provides preliminary data on substantial differences in DNA methylation between WTC-exposed and unexposed populations that require validation in further studies.

Keywords: environmental exposure; epigenome-wide association study; exposure assessment; methylation; pathway analysis; World Trade Center; 9/11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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