ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism increases susceptibility to breast cancer: a meta-analysis of 4547 individuals

Association of ERCC1 rs11615 Polymorphism with the Risk of Cervical Cancer Especially in Chinese Populations: A Meta-Analysis

Abnormalities of the ERCC1 gene can affect DNA repair pathways, thereby having a vital effect on genomic stability. A growing amount of case-control studies have focused on making an investigation of the association between ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism and cervical cancer susceptibility. However, the controversial results have raised concerns. To draw a more accurate conclusion, six studies were elaborately selected from the electronic databases for this meta-analysis, with 753 cervical cancer cases and 851 healthy controls. We applied pooled ORs combined with 95% CIs to test the potential associations. Significant associations were revealed in Chinese populations (T vs C: $\text{OR}=1.557$ and $95\%\text{CI}=1.234–1.966$ ; TT vs CC: $\text{OR}=3.175$ and $95\%\text{CI}=1.754–5.748$ ; TT/CT vs CC: $\text{OR}=1.512$ and $95\%\text{CI}=1.126–\mathrm{2,031}$ ; and TT vs CT/CC: $\text{OR}=2.836$ and $95\%\text{CI}=1.592–5.051$ ). Even when the studies deviating from HWE were excluded, an increased cervical cancer susceptibility was observed in Chinese. These results disclose that there is an obvious correlation between the risk of cervical cancer and ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism, especially in Chinese populations, and the T variant is the risky one. Also, our findings need further studies to validate.

Longitudinal Multi-Parametric Liquid Biopsy Approach Identifies Unique Features of Circulating Tumor Cell, Extracellular Vesicle, and Cell-Free DNA Characterization for Disease Monitoring in Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients

Dynamics of mRNA from circulating tumor cells (CTCs), mRNA from extracellular vesicles (EVs), and cell-free DNA (cfDNA) were assessed to examine the relevance of a longitudinal multi-parametric liquid biopsy strategy. Eighteen milliliters of blood was drawn from 27 hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients at disease progression and at two subsequent radiologic staging time points. CTC mRNA and EV mRNA were analyzed using multi-marker qPCR, and cfDNA was analyzed using targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS). The presence of ERBB2 or ERBB3 overexpression signals in CTCs significantly correlated with disease progression (87% specificity, 36% sensitivity, p-value = 0.023), and the presence of either ERBB3 signals in CTCs or EVs or cfDNA variants in ERBB3 also showed a significant association with progressive MBC. Fluctuations during treatment were detected in the EV fraction with the appearance of hitherto undetected ERCC1 signals correlating with progressive disease (97% specificity, 18% sensitivity, p-value = 0.030). Allele frequency development of ESR1 and PIK3CA variants detected at subsequent staging time points could be used as a predictor for therapy success and, importantly, might help guide therapy decisions. The three analytes, each with their own unique features for disease monitoring, were shown to be complementary, underlining the usefulness of the longitudinal multi-parametric liquid biopsy approach.

LncRNA TTN-AS1 drives invasion and migration of lung adenocarcinoma cells via modulation of miR-4677-3p/ZEB1 axis

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most prevalent type of lung cancer with a high incidence and mortality worldwide. Metastasis is the major cause of high death rate in lung cancer and the potential mechanism of lung adenocarcinoma metastasis remains indistinct. Emerging investigations have demonstrated that long noncoding RNA is a kind of non-protein coding RNA and plays a critical role in cancer progression and metastasis. TTN antisense RNA 1 (TTN-AS1) has been reported to promote cell growth and metastasis in cancer. However, the function of TTN-AS1 in lung adenocarcinoma is still to be illustrated. In this study, we observed that TTN-AS1 was upregulated in tissues and cells of lung adenocarcinoma and associated with poor overall survival. TTN-AS1 promoted cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in lung cancer. TTN-AS1 directly bound with miR-4677-3p and negatively regulated miR-4677-3p. MiR-4677-3p rescued the inhibitive impacts of TTN-AS1 knockdown on lung adenocarcinoma. Furthermore, zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) was the target of miR-4677-3p, and TTN-AS1 modulated ZEB1 by competing for miR-4677-3p. TTN-AS1 drove the invasion and migration of lung adenocarcinoma cells by targeting the miR-4677-3p/ZEB1 axis. To sum up, our study offers insights into the mechanism of TTN-AS1 in lung adenocarcinoma metastasis and targeting the TTN-AS1/miR-4677-3p/ZEB1 axis may be the potential innovate therapeutic strategy for the patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

Association of excision repair cross-complimentary group 1 gene polymorphisms with breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility

The role of excision repair cross-complimentary group 1 (ERCC1) gene polymorphisms in breast and ovarian cancer development has long been controversial and existing data were inconsistent. Here, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis to better clarify the association. Case-control studies published from December 2008 to November 2018 were assessed. The statistical analyses of the pooled odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Fifteen articles with 24 case-control studies and 3 ERCC1 polymorphisms were enrolled. A total of 20 923 participants including 9896 cases and 11 027 controls were analyzed. The results showed that C to T variation in the ERCC1 rs11615 (C/T) polymorphisms was correlated with breast cancer susceptibility (T vs C: OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.02-1.38; TT + CT vs CC: OR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.12-1.36). ERCC1 rs3212986 (C/A) polymorphisms posed an increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer as whole (A vs C: OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.01-1.25; AA + CA vs CC: OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.02-1.22), and presented especially higher risk for ovarian cancer (A vs C: OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.05-1.63; AA vs CA + CC: OR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.12-2.47; AA vs CC: OR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.12-2.64). Meanwhile, neither overall group analyses nor stratified analyses displayed any association of ERCC1 rs2298881 (A/C) polymorphisms in breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility. This meta-analysis suggested that ERCC1 rs11615 (C/T) polymorphisms were associated with breast cancer susceptibility and rs3212986 (C/A) polymorphisms were especially correlated with ovarian cancer risk. More case-control studies with well-adjusted data and diverse populations are essential for validation of our conclusion.

The influence of genetic variability of DNA repair mechanisms on the risk of malignant mesothelioma

Background Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a rare aggressive tumour of mesothelium caused by asbestos exposure. It has been suggested that the genetic variability of proteins involved in DNA repair mechanisms affects the risk of MM. This study investigated the influence of functional polymorphisms in ERCC1 and XRCC1 genes, the interactions between these polymorphisms as well as the interactions between these polymorphisms and asbestos exposure on MM risk. Patients and methods In total, 237 cases with MM and 193 controls with no asbestos-related disease were genotyped for ERCC1 and XRCC1 polymorphisms. Results ERCC1 rs3212986 polymorphism was significantly associated with a decreased risk of MM (odds ratio [OR] = 0.61; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.41-0.91; p = 0.014). No associations were observed between other genetic polymorphisms and MM risk. Interactions between polymorphisms did not significantly influence MM risk. Interaction between ERCC1 rs11615 and asbestos exposure significantly influenced MM risk (OR = 3.61; 95% CI = 1.12-11.66; p = 0.032). Carriers of polymorphic ERCC1 rs11615 allele who were exposed to low level of asbestos had a decreased risk of MM (OR = 0.40; 95% CI = 0.19-0.84; p = 0.016). Interactions between other polymorphisms and asbestos exposure did not significantly influence MM risk. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the genetic variability of DNA repair mechanisms could contribute to the risk of developing MM.

LRP1B Polymorphisms Are Associated with Multiple Myeloma Risk in a Chinese Han Population

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an extremely complex plasma cell malignancy that is genetically heterogeneous. A recent Genome-wide association study (GWAS) indicated that variation at 2q22 (rs61070260) influences MM risk. This association has not been validated to date in a Chinese Han population. In this study, we evaluated the association between rs61070260 in LRP1B and MM risk in a Chinese Han population involving 739 MM patients and 592 healthy controls. Our results indicated that rs61070260 in LRP1B was significantly associated with MM susceptibility (P=3.937×10-37). Furthermore, the linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis of rs61070260 revealed an LD block encompassing exons 26, 27 and 28 of the LRP1B gene, and a subsequent sequencing analysis identified three SNPs (rs762074421, rs756168629, rs113600691) in exons 26 and 28 of LRP1B. For the SNP rs756168629 in exon 26, a missense mutation which results in a transition from arginine to histidine at position 1661 of the LRP1B protein, has not been found in Chinese populations according to the Chinese Millionome Database and Genome Aggregation Database (EAS), and this mutation was predicted to be deleterious or damaging by SIFT and PolyPhen. These findings firmly establish the role of LRP1B in contributing to MM susceptibility. In addition, the identification of a rare coding mutation (p.R1661H) in LRP1B detected in MM individuals was suggested to be harmful to the encoded protein, which was characterized as a candidate tumour suppressor; thus, LRP1B is likely to be a disease-associated gene that is implicated in the development and progression of MM.

Contribution of excision repair cross-complementing group 1 genotypes to triple negative breast cancer risk

Compared with other subgroups of breast cancer, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is considered to be the one with the greatest invasiveness and metastatic mobility, and the highest recurrence rate. Considering the lack of predictive markers for TNBC, we aimed to examine the contribution of excision repair cross complementing-group 1 (ERCC1) genotypes to TNBC. The rs11615 and rs3212986 of ERCC1 were investigated and evaluated for their associations with susceptibility to breast cancer, especially TNBC, in Taiwan. In this study, 1,232 breast cancer patients (104 were TNBC) and 1,232 healthy controls were recruited and their genotypes at ERCC1 rs11615 and rs3212986 were revealed by polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. Our results indicated that genotypes of ERCC1 rs11615 (Ptrend = 2.2*10E-9), but not rs3212986 (Ptrend = 0.6181), were associated with breast cancer risk. In the allelic frequency distribution analysis, breast cancer patients carried the T allele of ERCC1 rs11615 a higher rate than the control subjects, further supporting the idea that ERCC1 rs11615 TT genotype is positively associated with breast cancer susceptibility. More importantly, the frequency of the ERCC1 rs11615 TT genotype was even higher among TNBC patients than among other subtypes of breast cancer patients (P = 0.0001, odds ratio = 1.73, 95% confidence interval = 1.15-2.63). The genotypes of ERCC1 rs11615 were not associated with Ki67 status. Our findings firstly show that the T allele of ERCC1 rs11615 can serve as a predictive biomarker for breast cancer and TNBC. We believe that ERCC1 could serve as a target for personalized treatment of breast cancer, especially for TNBC.