# Epigenetic Regulated Genes in African-American Prostate Cancer Patients

> **NIH NIH U54** · HOWARD UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $268,276

## Abstract

Project 2 Summary
The incidence and mortality of prostate cancer (PCa) is approximately 2 fold higher in African American (AA)
than in European-American (EA) men, with AA men experiencing among the highest rates worldwide. Although
environmental and socioeconomic factors play a role in PCa disparity, family history is a strong risk factor
indicating that genetics also play a role. While allelic variation in genes involved in pathways relevant to PCa
biology have been proposed as genetic cause or contributor for the increased PCa risk in AA men, genetic
variation cannot adequately explain the phenotypic difference in PCa initiation and progression in AA and EA
men, suggesting that epigenetic alterations such as differential DNA methylation and histone modification may
explain the more aggressive clinical behavior of PCa in AA men. There is scientific evidence to suggest that
aberrant DNA methylation and histone modification may contribute to prostate pathogenesis. However, most of
the epigenetic research work has been carried out using EA samples with very little data on AA men. We have
found significantly higher methylation in a small sample cohort of AA when compared to EA samples,
suggesting that increase prevalence of epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation for several genes may
affect AA men with PCa differently than EA men. The objective of this proposal is to identify genes that are
epigenetically altered by differentially methylation in AA PCa that may explain the higher aggressiveness of AA
PCa. Our hypothesis is that differential epigenetic alteration may represent an integration of lifestyle and
genetic predisposing factors to create a more aggressive disease milieu in African American patients. Our
study aims are to conduct: (1) Comprehensive Genome-wide assessment of DNA methylation and histone
methylation/acetylation patterns in PCa from AA men; (2) Correlation analysis of transcriptome and epigenetic
DNA methylation data in AA PCa; and (3) Evaluation of the biological activity of novel DNA methylated genes
in PCa cell lines. The proposed work could produce several important outcomes. First, identification of genes
regulated by DNA methylation changes in AA men could increase our understanding of the genetic changes
contributing to aggressive nature of tumors among AA men and PCa disparity. Second, studies proposed here
could lead to the identification of novel (“ethnic sensitive”) biomarkers that can predict disease aggressiveness
and provide correlations between epigenetic changes and prostate tissue pathological features such as stage,
grade and recurrence. Furthermore, because epigenetic DNA methylation changes are reversible, epigenetic
drugs are being explored for reversing somatic epigenetic defects. Thus, studies could potentially lead to the
identification of novel epigenetic targets for prostate cancer treatment. The successful outcome of this
proposal will in the short term serve to fill in a gap that explains the role ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9939718
- **Project number:** 5U54MD007597-32
- **Recipient organization:** HOWARD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** BERNARD KWABI-ADDO
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $268,276
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9939718

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9939718, Epigenetic Regulated Genes in African-American Prostate Cancer Patients (5U54MD007597-32). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9939718. Licensed CC0.

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