Browsing by Author "Ozer, Bugra"

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A novel analysis strategy for integrating methylation and expression data reveals core pathways for thyroid cancer aetiology
(BMC, 2015-01-01) Ozer, Bugra; Sezerman, Osman Ugur
Background: Recently, a wide range of diseases have been associated with changes in DNA methylation levels, which play a vital role in gene expression regulation. With ongoing developments in technology, attempts to understand disease mechanism have benefited greatly from epigenetics and transcriptomics studies. In this work, we have used expression and methylation data of thyroid carcinoma as a case study and explored how to optimally incorporate expression and methylation information into the disease study when both data are available. Moreover, we have also investigated whether there are important post-translational modifiers which could drive critical insights on thyroid cancer genetics. Results: In this study, we have conducted a threshold analysis for varying methylation levels to identify whether setting a methylation level threshold increases the performance of functional enrichment. Moreover, in order to decide on best-performing analysis strategy, we have performed data integration analysis including comparison of 10 different analysis strategies. As a result, combining methylation with expression and using genes with more than 15\% methylation change led to optimal detection rate of thyroid-cancer associated pathways in top 20 functional enrichment results. Furthermore, pooling the data from different experiments increased analysis confidence by improving the data range. Consequently, we have identified 207 transcription factors and 245 post-translational modifiers with more than 15\% methylation change which may be important in understanding underlying mechanisms of thyroid cancer. Conclusion: While only expression or only methylation information would not reveal both primary and secondary mechanisms involved in disease state, combining expression and methylation led to a better detection of thyroid cancer-related genes and pathways that are found in the recent literature. Moreover, focusing on genes that have certain level of methylation change improved the functional enrichment results, revealing the core pathways involved in disease development such as
An integrative study on the impact of highly differentially methylated genes on expression and cancer etiology
(PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2017-01-01) Ozer, Bugra; Sezerman, Ugur
DNA methylation is an important epigenetic phenomenon that plays a key role in the regulation of expression. Most of the studies on the topic of methylation's role in cancer mechanisms include analyses based on differential methylation, with the integration of expression information as supporting evidence. In the present study, we sought to identify methylationdriven patterns by also integrating protein-protein interaction information. We performed integrative analyses of DNA methylation, expression, SNP and copy number data on paired samples from six different cancer types. As a result, we found that genes that show a methylation change larger than 32.2\% may influence cancer-related genes via fewer interaction steps and with much higher percentages compared with genes showing a methylation change less than 32.2\%. Additionally, we investigated whether there were shared cancer mechanisms among different cancer types. Specifically, five cancer types shared a change in AGTR1 and IGF1 genes, which implies that there may be similar underlying disease mechanisms among these cancers. Additionally, when the focus was placed on distinctly altered genes within each cancer type, we identified various cancer-specific genes that are also supported in the literature and may play crucial roles as therapeutic targets. Overall, our novel graph-based approach for identifying methylation-driven patterns will improve our understanding of the effects of methylation on cancer progression and lead to improved knowledge of cancer etiology.
Hereditary spastic paraplegia with recessive trait caused by mutation in KLC4 gene
(NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, 2015-01-01) Bayrakli, Fatih; Poyrazoglu, Hatice Gamze; Yuksel, Sirin; Yakicier, Cengiz; Erguner, Bekir; Sagiroglu, Mahmut Samil; Yuceturk, Betul; Ozer, Bugra; Doganay, Selim; Tanrikulu, Bahattin; Seker, Askin; Akbulut, Fatih; Ozen, Ali; Per, Huseyin; Kumandas, Sefer; Torun, Yasemin Altuner; Bayri, Yasar; Sakar, Mustafa; Dagcinar, Adnan; Ziyal, Ibrahim
We report an association between a new causative gene and spastic paraplegia, which is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. Clinical phenotyping of one consanguineous family followed by combined homozygosity mapping and whole-exome sequencing analysis. Three patients from the same family shared common features of progressive complicated spastic paraplegia. They shared a single homozygous stretch area on chromosome 6. Whole-exome sequencing revealed a homozygous mutation (c.853\_871del19) in the gene coding the kinesin light chain 4 protein (KLC4). Meanwhile, the unaffected parents and two siblings were heterozygous and one sibling was homozygous wild type. The 19 bp deletion in exon 6 generates a stop codon and thus a truncated messenger RNA and protein. The association of a KLC4 mutation with spastic paraplegia identifies a new locus for the disease.