Inhibitory effects of MAGEA1 on cell proliferation and migration were observed using both gain-of- (MAGEA1 overexpression) and loss-of- (siRNA interference) function approaches in breast (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) and ovarian (SKOV3 and SKOV3ip) cancer cell lines.
Most of the assayed gene regions displayed hypermethylation in cancer vs. adjacent tissue but the TFF1 and MAGEA1 regions were significantly hypomethylated (p ≤0.001).
A two-marker RT-PCR assay with a liver-specific AFP marker and a cancer specific MAGE-1 marker may be a promising tool for detecting blood disseminated HCC cells with a better sensitivity and specificity than a single marker RT-PCR.
We describe here a novel sensitive multimarker nested reverse transcription (RT)-PCR capable of detecting the individual expression of human MAGE-A genes MAGE-1, -2, -3/6, -4, and -12 by rare, disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow and blood of patients with many different types of cancer.
In conclusions, MAGE 1-6 assay can detect any cancer cells that express at least one of eight MAGE subtype genes, and this method may be very useful for the diagnosis of MAGE-expressing cancers.
MAGE-1 (melanoma antigen 1) is an ideal candidate for cancer vaccines because it belongs to a family of genes that are expressed in a number of human tumors of various histological types but not in normal adult tissues except for the testis, and because both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses against MAGE-1 antigen were detected in tumor patients.