Table 6 Human studies on NSW and epigenetic changes
From: Night shift work and breast cancer: from etiopathology to precision risk analysis
NSW Effect | Parameter(s) | Outcome | Year | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Epigenetic alterations linked to inflammation | DNAme of Alu, IFN-γ, GCR, TNF-α (blood) | ↓ Alu, ↓ IFN-γ, ↑ GCR, ↓ TNF-α → inflammation-related DNAme changes | 2010 | |
Circadian and cancer-related gene methylation | Promoter DNAme of CLOCK, CRY2, ESR1, CDKN2A, MBD2, HDAC2 (blood) | ↓ CLOCK, ↑ CRY2, ↑ ESR1/CDKN2A/MBD2/HDAC2 → circadian disruption and BC risk ↑ | 2011 | |
miRNA promoter methylation | DNAme of 31 miRNA promoters (esp. miR-219) (blood) | ↑ miR-219 DNAme → ↓ Jak–STAT / NF-κB immune–antitumor signaling → BC risk ↑ | 2013 | |
Imprinted gene methylation alterations | DNAme at 50 CpG sites in 26 imprinted genes (DLX5, IGF2AS, TP73) | Mixed ↑/↓ DNAme → altered imprinting and cancer-related pathways | 2013 | |
Global and circadian gene hypomethylation | DNAme of circadian genes (PER1–3, CSNK1E/D, CLOCK, ARNTL) | ↓ DNAme across circadian and immune/oxidative stress genes → systemic epigenetic dysregulation | 2015 | |
Tumor-suppressive miRNA silencing (female workers) | DNAme of miR-34b promoter (blood) | ↑ miR-34b DNAme → ↓ expression → ↓ antiproliferative/tumor-suppressive activity → BC risk ↑ | 2015 | |
No methylation change in tumor suppressors | Promoter DNAme of BRCA1, BRCA2 | No significant change → no detectable epigenetic effect | 2017 | |
Tumor-suppressor gene hypomethylation | DNAme of ESR1, TP53, BRCA1, LINE-1, Alu | ↓ ESR1/TP53/BRCA1, no change in LINE-1/Alu → specific epigenetic disruption | 2019 | |
Epigenetic age acceleration | DNAm age (PhenoAge) and CpG methylation (ZFHX3, ATXN7) | ↑ epigenetic age ( + 3 y), ↓ ZFHX3, ↑ ATXN7 → accelerated aging and circadian disruption | 2019 | |
Reversible methylation linked to recovery (SWD cases) | DNAme in GRIN2C, CREB1, CAMK2B | ↓ DNAme during work, reversible ↑ during recovery → CREB–CaMKII pathway modulation | 2021 | |
Melatonin-linked circadian gene methylation (female workers) | DNAme of RORA, MTNR1A, PER3 | ↑ RORA, mixed MTNR1A, ↓ PER3 → circadian disruption and potential BC risk ↑ | 2022 | |
Shift-dependent methylation in circadian genes | DNAme of CSNK1E, NR1D1, ARNTL | ↑ CSNK1E (current), ↓ NR1D1 ( ≥ 10 y NSW), ↑ ARNTL ( ≥ 3 consecutive NS/week) → epigenetic shift-pattern dependence | 2022 | |
Sex-specific DNAme and epigenetic aging | DNAme of CRY2, CSNK1D, RORA, RORC, LIN54, E2F1, ETS1; epigenetic clocks | ↑ DNAme in women after 10–16 y NSW; short-term NSW → ↑ epigenetic age (Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, GrimAge) | 2023 | |
HERV and immune gene methylation (female nurses) | DNAme of ERVFRD-1, ERVL, HERV-P, ERVW-1, BIRC2, FLRT3, MIG6, SIRT1 | Differential DNA me; effects modified by BMI → inflammation and immune epigenetic modulation | 2023 |
