Genome-wide profiling reveals cancer-related genes with switched alternative polyadenylation sites in colorectal cancer

摘要

BackgroundAlternative polyadenylation (APA) is an important post-transcriptional regulation in eukaryotic cells. It plays considerable roles in many biological processes and diseases, such as cell differentiation, proliferation and cancer. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, which is among the top five in incidence and mortality of all cancers in China. Although there have been some studies on the APA of CRC, the normal and carcinoma samples used for genome-wide profiling were not matched. The purpose of this study was to obtain genes with switched 3′-untranslated region (UTR) that may be associated with intracellular regulation of CRC by analyzing APA patterns of strict control groups from clinical patients.