No association between the XPD Lys751Gln (rs13181) polymorphism and disease phenotype or leukemic transformation in primary myelofibrosis

DNA repair pathways as guardians of the genome: Therapeutic potential and possible prognostic role in hematologic neoplasms

DNA repair pathways, which are also identified as guardians of the genome, protect cells from frequent damage that can lead to DNA breaks. The most deleterious types of damage are double-strand breaks (DSBs), which are repaired by homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Single strand breaks (SSBs) can be corrected through base excision repair (BER), nucleotide excision repair (NER), and mismatch repair (MMR). Failure to restore DNA lesions or inappropriately repaired DNA damage culminates in genomic instability and changes in the regulation of cellular functions. Intriguingly, particular mutations and translocations are accompanied by special types of leukemia. Besides, expression patterns of certain repair genes are altered in different hematologic malignancies. Moreover, analysis of mutations in key mediators of DNA damage repair (DDR) pathways, as well as investigation of their expression and function, may provide us with emerging biomarkers of response/resistance to treatment. Therefore, defective DDR pathways can offer a rational starting point for developing DNA repair-targeted drugs. In this review, we address genetic alterations and gene/protein expression changes, as well as provide an overview of DNA repair pathways.

Focused screening of a panel of cancer-related genetic polymorphisms reveals new susceptibility loci for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia

BACKGROUND

A genetic predisposition to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in childhood is well established. Currently known risk loci, however, explain only one third of the estimated total risk related to common genetic variations.

PROCEDURE

We genotyped 1,421 polymorphisms in 407 candidate genes from the SNP500Cancer database (National Cancer Institute) using the Illumina Cancer SNP Panel. We investigated 78 cases (aged 0-19 years at diagnosis, and mixed ethnic background) of childhood B-precursor ALL and compared genotype data with those of 1,417 HapMap controls. To account for the ethnic diversity of the study population, structured association by genetically matching cases and controls using identity-by-state similarity was used. Case-control association analyses were performed using Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests, adjusted for the population substructure.

RESULTS

Common variations rs6966 (3' UTR of PPP1R13L, chr 19q13.32, P = 4.55 × 10(-9)) and rs414580 (intron 2 of MSR1, chr 8p22, P = 6.09 × 10(-8)) were significantly associated with ALL. These SNPs remained significant after adjustment for multiple testing. The SNP rs6966 tags a haplotype block which includes SNPs in PPP1R13L and ERCC2 genes, which are related to DNA repair and cell survival. rs6966 and rs414580 conferred allelic odds ratios of 3.74 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.31-6.04) and 3.93 (95% CI 2.31-6.69), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings reveal two independent novel susceptibility loci for childhood ALL.