Independent assessments of paired SLCs methylation and expression sequencing data from TCGA AML project revealed a negative correlation between those of SLC22A3 (r =  − 0.376, P < 0.001, n = 155, Fig. 1F), but not of other four genes (SLC5A8, SLC6A11, SLC7A14, and SLC34A2) (Additional file 2). The gene discussed is SLC5A8; the disease is acute myeloid leukemia.