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Breast Cancer Research
Published in: Breast Cancer Research 2/2012

Open Access 01-04-2012 | Research article

Effects of BRCA2 cis-regulation in normal breast and cancer risk amongst BRCA2 mutation carriers

Authors: Ana-Teresa Maia, Antonis C Antoniou, Martin O'Reilly, Shamith Samarajiwa, Mark Dunning, Christiana Kartsonaki, Suet-Feung Chin, Christina N Curtis, Lesley McGuffog, Susan M Domchek, Douglas F Easton, Susan Peock, Debra Frost, D Gareth Evans, Ros Eeles, Louise Izatt, Julian Adlard, Diana Eccles, Olga M Sinilnikova, Sylvie Mazoyer, Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet, Marion Gauthier-Villars, Laurence Faivre, Laurence Venat-Bouvet, Capucine Delnatte, Heli Nevanlinna, Fergus J Couch, Andrew K Godwin, Maria Adelaide Caligo, Rosa B Barkardottir, Xiaoqing Chen, Jonathan Beesley, Sue Healey, Carlos Caldas, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Bruce AJ Ponder, EMBRACE, GEMO Study Collaborators, SWE-BRCA, kConFab Investigators

Published in: Breast Cancer Research | Issue 2/2012

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Abstract

Introduction

Cis-acting regulatory single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at specific loci may modulate penetrance of germline mutations at the same loci by introducing different levels of expression of the wild-type allele. We have previously reported that BRCA2 shows differential allelic expression and we hypothesize that the known variable penetrance of BRCA2 mutations might be associated with this mechanism.

Methods

We combined haplotype analysis and differential allelic expression of BRCA2 in breast tissue to identify expression haplotypes and candidate cis-regulatory variants. These candidate variants underwent selection based on in silico predictions for regulatory potential and disruption of transcription factor binding, and were functionally analyzed in vitro and in vivo in normal and breast cancer cell lines. SNPs tagging the expression haplotypes were correlated with the total expression of several genes in breast tissue measured by Taqman and microarray technologies. The effect of the expression haplotypes on breast cancer risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers was investigated in 2,754 carriers.

Results

We identified common haplotypes associated with differences in the levels of BRCA2 expression in human breast cells. We characterized three cis-regulatory SNPs located at the promoter and two intronic regulatory elements which affect the binding of the transcription factors C/EBPα, HMGA1, D-binding protein (DBP) and ZF5. We showed that the expression haplotypes also correlated with changes in the expression of other genes in normal breast. Furthermore, there was suggestive evidence that the minor allele of SNP rs4942440, which is associated with higher BRCA2 expression, is also associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer (per-allele hazard ratio (HR) = 0.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.72 to 1.00, P-trend = 0.048).

Conclusions

Our work provides further insights into the role of cis-regulatory variation in the penetrance of disease-causing mutations. We identified small-effect genetic variants associated with allelic expression differences in BRCA2 which could possibly affect the risk in mutation carriers through altering expression levels of the wild-type allele.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Effects of BRCA2 cis-regulation in normal breast and cancer risk amongst BRCA2 mutation carriers
Authors
Ana-Teresa Maia
Antonis C Antoniou
Martin O'Reilly
Shamith Samarajiwa
Mark Dunning
Christiana Kartsonaki
Suet-Feung Chin
Christina N Curtis
Lesley McGuffog
Susan M Domchek
Douglas F Easton
Susan Peock
Debra Frost
D Gareth Evans
Ros Eeles
Louise Izatt
Julian Adlard
Diana Eccles
Olga M Sinilnikova
Sylvie Mazoyer
Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet
Marion Gauthier-Villars
Laurence Faivre
Laurence Venat-Bouvet
Capucine Delnatte
Heli Nevanlinna
Fergus J Couch
Andrew K Godwin
Maria Adelaide Caligo
Rosa B Barkardottir
Xiaoqing Chen
Jonathan Beesley
Sue Healey
Carlos Caldas
Georgia Chenevix-Trench
Bruce AJ Ponder
EMBRACE
GEMO Study Collaborators
SWE-BRCA
kConFab Investigators
Publication date
01-04-2012
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Breast Cancer Research / Issue 2/2012
Electronic ISSN: 1465-542X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/bcr3169

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