Screening for gene mutations in a 500 kb neuroblastoma tumor suppressor candidate region in chromosome 1p; mutation and stage-specific expression in UBE4B/UFD2.

• Deletion of a part of the short arm of chromosome 1 is one of the most common chromosomal rearrangements observed in neuroblastoma (NBL) tumors and it is associated with a poor prognosis. No NBL tumor suppressor gene has yet been identified in the region. Our shortest region of overlap of deletions, ranging from marker D1S80 to D1S244, was shown to partly overlap a 500 kb region that was homozygously deleted in a NBL cell line. We have screened seven genes known to reside in or very close to this overlap consensus region, UBE4B/UFD2, KIF1B, DFFA, PGD, CORT, PEX14, and ICAT, for coding mutations in NBL tumor DNA. A few deviations from the reference sequences were identified; most interestingly being a splice site mutation that was detected in UBE4B/UFD2 in a stage 3 NBL with a fatal outcome. This mutation was neither present in the patients constitutional DNA nor in any of 192 control chromosomes analysed. Also, the expression of UBE4B/UFD2 was markedly diminished in the high-stage/poor-outcome tumors as compared to the low-stage/favorable-outcome tumors. Overall, the number of amino-acid changes in the genes of the region was low, which shows that mutations in these genes are rare events in NBL development. Given the data presented here, UBE4B/UFD2 stands out as the strongest candidate NBL tumor suppressor gene in the region at this stage.

Nyckelord

Amino Acid Substitution

Chromosomes

Human

Pair 1

genetics

Cysteine Endopeptidases

metabolism

DNA Mutational Analysis

DNA

Neoplasm

genetics

Gene Deletion

Gene Expression Profiling

Gene Expression Regulation

Neoplastic

Genes

Tumor Suppressor

Humans

Loss of Heterozygosity

Multienzyme Complexes

metabolism

Mutation

Neoplasm Proteins

biosynthesis

genetics

Neoplasm Staging

Neuroblastoma

genetics

metabolism

pathology

Prognosis

Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex

RNA Splice Sites

genetics

Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Treatment Outcome

Tumor Suppressor Proteins

biosynthesis

genetics

Ubiquitin

metabolism

metabolism

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)