Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most frequent cancer type and the second ighest cause of câncer mortality worldwide. A better understanding of the biology of the progression of this neoplasia is crucial to reducing the mortality rate with the development of novel patient management and therapeutic strategies. In this study, we analyzed gastric cancer samples and found elevated expression of SRC and LYN kinase mRNA and protein but decreased levels of CKB kinase, alterations that may have a role in the invasiveness and metastasis of gastric tumors. Expression of the three studied kinases was also associated with MYC oncogene expression, a possible biomarker for gastric cancer. To understand the mechanisms that regulate the expression of these genes, we evaluated the DNA methylation patterns of the three kinases. We found that SRC and LYN hypomethylation and CKB hypermethylation were only present in neoplastic gastric samples. The loss of SRC and LYN methylation was associated with increased levels of mRNA and protein expression, suggesting that DNA methylation is involved in regulating the expression of these kinases. The frequency of hypermethylation and partial methylation of CKB was higher in the gastric cancer samples than in the non-neoplastic gastric samples; however, CKB expression was found to be only partly regulated by DNA methylation. In an analysis of the expression data, we found that alterations in the DNA methylation pattern of the three studied kinases were also associated with advanced gastric cancer, deeper tumor invasion and the presence of metastasis. Therefore, SRC, LYN and CKB expression or DNA methylation could be useful markers for predicting tumor progression and targeting in anti-cancer strategies.
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