Gout in males: a possible role for COMT hypomethylation.
OBJECTIVE
Gout is a common inflammatory disease, and the prevalence of gout in men is significantly higher than in women. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) regulates dopamine activity and metabolism, thereby participating in the uric acid metabolism, which in turn affects the occurrence of gout. Our study aimed to investigate the association between COMT methylation and gout in men.


METHODS
This study involved 57 male gout patients and 103 age-matched healthy men. We used quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (qMSP) to determine DNA methylation levels in the blood. The COMT methylation level was represented by the percentage of methylation reference (PMR).


RESULTS
Our results showed that COMT methylation levels were significantly lower in gout patients than in the control group (median PMR 9.50 vs 31.34, p = 3E-5). The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.701 (95% CI 0.611-0.790, p = 2.7E-5) with a sensitivity of 68% and a specificity of 68.4%.


CONCLUSION
Our study found that there was a significant correlation between COMT hypomethylation and the risk of gout in males, and this provides an epigenetic mechanism of COMT in gout. COMT hypomethylation might be used as a potential diagnostic biomarker for gout in the future.
['Ying|Xiuru|X|', 'Chen|Yanfei|Y|', 'Zheng|Zhonghua|Z|', 'Duan|Shiwei|S|']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D019540:Area Under Curve D015415:Biomarkers D016022:Case-Control Studies D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase D002681:China D019295:Computational Biology D019175:DNA Methylation D004298:Dopamine D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic D006073:Gout D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
Gout Male Catechol-O-methyltransferase DNA methylation Promoter