What is it about?

Cancer is a complex disease that relies on progressive uncontrolled cell division linked with multiple dysfunctional biological processes. Tumor heterogeneity remains the most challenging feature in cancer diagnosis and treatment. We aim to identify the unique expression profiles and interactome of a set of particular genes that may act as functional signatures across 8 different cancers. We selected the four most prevalent cancers, namely Breast Invasive Carcinoma (BRCA), Colon Adenocarcinoma (COAD), Lung Adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and Prostate Adenocarcinoma (PRAD), along with the four most aggressive cancers with high intrinsic heterogeneity, namely Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma (BLCA), Esophageal Carcinoma (ESCA), Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) and Kidney Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma (KIRC). A highly conserved induction of a group of deacetylase-histones located in a region of chromosome 6 enriched in nucleosome and chromatin condensation processes that could have relevance as therapy targets were identified.

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Why is it important?

Intronless genes (IGs) or single-exon genes lacking introns are found across Eukaryotes. IGs are not regulated by the splicing machinery and may be subject to lower post-transcriptional gene expression variability. Therefore, IGs might be potential candidates for biomarkers with better predictability and easier regulation as targets for therapy.

Perspectives

This study highlights that differentially expressed human intronless genes across cancer types are prevalent in epigenetic regulatory roles participating in specific protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks for ESCA, GBM, and LUAD tumors. We determine that IGs play a key role in the tumor phenotype at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, with important mechanisms such as interactomics rewiring.

Dr. Katia Avina Padilla
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Deciphering the Tissue-Specific Regulatory Role of Intronless Genes Across Cancers, January 2022, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-06220-9_18.
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