Genome-wide association and transcriptome studies identify target genes and risk loci for breast cancer

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 170 breast cancer susceptibility loci. Here we hypothesize that some risk-associated variants might act in non-breast tissues, specifically adipose tissue and immune cells from blood and spleen. Using expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) reported in these tissues, we identify 26 previously unreported, likely target genes of overall breast cancer risk variants, and 17 for estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer, several with a known immune function. We determine the directional effect of gene expression on disease risk measured based on single and multiple eQTL. In addition, using a gene-based test of association that considers eQTL from multiple tissues, we identify seven (and four) regions with variants associated with overall (and ER-negative) breast cancer risk, which were not reported in previous GWAS. Further investigation of the function of the implicated genes in breast and immune cells may provide insights into the etiology of breast cancer.Peer reviewe

Breast cancer polygenic risk score and contralateral breast cancer risk

Previous research has shown that polygenic risk scores (PRSs) can be used to stratify women according to their risk of developing primary invasive breast cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the association between a recently validated PRS of 313 germline variants (PRS313) and contralateral breast cancer (CBC) risk. We included 56,068 women of European ancestry diagnosed with first invasive breast cancer from 1990 onward with follow-up from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Metachronous CBC risk (N = 1,027) according to the distribution of PRS313 was quantified using Cox regression analyses. We assessed PRS313 interaction with age at first diagnosis, family history, morphology, ER status, PR status, and HER2 status, and (neo)adjuvant therapy. In studies of Asian women, with limited follow-up, CBC risk associated with PRS313 was assessed using logistic regression for 340 women with CBC compared with 12,133 women with unilateral breast cancer. Higher PRS313 was associated with increased CBC risk: hazard ratio per standard deviation (SD) = 1.25 (95%CI = 1.18–1.33) for Europeans, and an OR per SD = 1.15 (95%CI = 1.02–1.29) for Asians. The absolute lifetime risks of CBC, accounting for death as competing risk, were 12.4% for European women at the 10th percentile and 20.5% at the 90th percentile of PRS313. We found no evidence of confounding by or interaction with individual characteristics, characteristics of the primary tumor, or treatment. The C-index for the PRS313 alone was 0.563 (95%CI = 0.547–0.586). In conclusion, PRS313 is an independent factor associated with CBC risk and can be incorporated into CBC risk prediction models to help improve stratification and optimize surveillance and treatment strategies

Superoxide responses of immune complex-stimulated rat alveolar macrophages. Intracellular calcium and priming

ATP is known to induce calcium transients in rat and human neutrophils and to "prime" these cells for enhanced oxygen radical responses after stimulation with chemotactic peptide, FMLP, or immune complexes. Calcium ionophores are also well known for their ability to prime phagocytic cells. In the current studies, nonelicited rat alveolar macrophages were analyzed for the ability of ATP as well as FMLP, C5a, platelet-activating factor and calcium ionophore (A23187) to modify levels of intracellular calcium and to enhance superoxide anion (O sub(2) super(-)) production in response to immune complexes. It is not clear if the inability of ATP to prime alveolar macrophages isn caused entirely by insufficient increases in intracellular calcium or if ATP is unable to bring about additional changes that are relevant to the priming phenomenon

Nucleotide responses of human neutrophils

Since human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) exposed to ATP or its poorly hydrolyzable analogue, adenosine5'-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) (ATP gamma S), respond with increases in intracellular calcium and enhanced O sub(2) super(-) responses to the chemotactic peptide N'-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe (fMLP), we systematically evaluated responses of PMN to various nucleotides. The P sub(2x) and P sub(2y) receptor agonists, 2-methylthioadenosine triphosphate and beta , gamma -methyleneadenosine triphosphate, failed to induce increases in intracellular calcium and did not desensitize PMN to increases in intracellular calcium induced by ATP gamma S. The data support the concept that nucleotide responses of PMN utilize either a common receptor or a common signal transduction pathway involving a guanine nucleotide binding protein in events leading to elevations in intracellular calcium. Nucleotide interaction with PMN does not follow the established pattern of responses associated with P sub(2x) or P sub(2y) purinergic receptor occupancy

Signal transduction events and Fc gamma R engagement in human neutrophils stimulated with immune complexes

Signal transduction events have been evaluated in human neutrophils stimulated with immune complexes consisting of polyclonal rabbit antibody complexed with BSA. Signal transduction events involving Fc gamma R appear to be quite different from those events related to engagement of FMLP receptors