DNA methylation profiling has become an important aspect of biomedical molecular analysis. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of bisulphite-treated DNA is a processing step that is common to many currently used methods of quantitative methylation analysis. Preferential amplification of unmethylated alleles—known as PCR-bias—may significantly affect the accuracy of quantification. To date, no universal experimental approach has been reported to overcome the problem. This study presents an effective method of correcting biased methylation data. The procedure includes a calibration performed in parallel to the analysis of the samples under investigation. DNA samples with defined degrees of methylation are analysed. The observed deviation of the experimental results from the expected values is used for calculating a regression curve. The equation of the best-fitting curve is then used for correction of the data obtained from the samples of interest. The process can be applied irrespective of the locus interrogated and the number of sites analysed, avoiding an optimization of the amplification conditions for each individual locus.
Quantification of DNA methylation in neoplastic cells is crucial both from mechanistic and diagnostic perspectives. However, such measurements are prone to different experimental biases. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) bias results in an unequal recovery of methylated and unmethylated alleles at the sample preparation step.Post-PCR biases get introduced additionally by the readout processes. Correcting the biases is more practicable than optimising experimental conditions, as demonstrated previously. However, utilisation of our earlier developed algorithm strongly necessitates automation. Here, we present two R packages: rBiasCorrection, the core algorithms to correct biases; and BiasCorrector, its web-based graphical user interface frontend. The software detects and analyses experimental biases in calibration DNA samples at a single base resolution by using cubic polynomial and hyperbolic regression. The correction coefficients from the best regression type are employed to compensate for the bias. Three common technologies-bisulphite pyrosequencing, next-generation sequencing and oligonucleotide microarrays-were used to Abbreviations: CpG, dinucleotides of cytidine followed by guanosine; GUI, graphical user interface; PCR, polymerase chain reaction.
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