Correlation of UGT2B7 Polymorphism with Cardiotoxicity in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Epirubicin/Cyclophosphamide-Docetaxel Adjuvant Chemotherapy

PURPOSE: The present study aimed to investigate correlations between uridine glucuronosyltransferase 2B7 (UGT2B7) -161 single nucleotide polymorphism C to T (C>T) and the occurrence of cardiotoxicity in Chinese breast cancer (BC) patients undergoing epirubicin/cyclophosphamide-docetaxel (EC-D) adjuvant chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 427 BC patients who had underwent surgery were consecutively enrolled in this prospective cohort study. All patients were scheduled to receive EC-D adjuvant chemotherapy regimen, and they were divided into UGT2B7 -161 CC (n=141), UGT2B7 -161 CT (n=196), and UGT2B7 -161 TT (n=90) groups according to their genotypes. Polymerase chain reaction was performed for determination of UGT2B7 -161 genotypes. Cardiotoxicity was defined as an absolute decline in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of at least 10% points from baseline to a value less than 53%, heart failure, acute coronary artery syndrome, or fatal arrhythmia. RESULTS: LVEF values were lower at cycle (C) 4, C8, 3 months after chemotherapy (M3), M6, M9, and M12 compared to C0 (all p < 0.001), in BC patients undergoing EC-D adjuvant chemotherapy. Cardiotoxicity was recorded for 4.2% of the overall population and was lowest in the UGT2B7 -161 TT group (1.1%), compared to UGT2B7 -161 CT (3.1%) and UGT2B7 -161 CC (7.8%) group (p=0.026). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that UGT2B7 -161 T allele could independently predict a low occurrence of cardiotoxicity in BC patients undergoing EC-D adjuvant chemotherapy (p=0.004). CONCLUSION: A UGT2B7 -161 T allele serves as a potential biomarker for predicting a low occurrence of cardiotoxicity in BC patients undergoing EC-D adjuvant chemotherapy.

Expression profiles of genes in wild-type DJ-1 and A39S DJ-1 mutant cells / 中南大学学报(医学版)

Objective: To elucidate the role of A39S mutation of DJ-1 in the onset of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and identify genes for which expressions are abnormally regulated by A39S DJ-1 mutation. Methods: We established HEK293 cell lines which stably expressed empty vector, wild-type DJ-1 and A39S mutated DJ-1 respectively. DNA microarrays were used to identify genes for which expressions change in wild-type DJ-1 cells and A39S DJ-1 mutant cells. Results: Compared with the cell line expression empty vector, we identified 42 differentially regulated genes (including 14 up-regulated genes and 28 down-regulated genes) in the wild-type DJ-1 cells and 8 differentially regulated genes (including 6 up-regulated genes and 2 down-regulated genes) in the A39S DJ-1 mutant cells. Compared with the wild-type DJ-1 cells, only the expression of UGT2B7 gene was down-regulated in A39S DJ-1 mutant cells. hTese differentially regulated genes were mainly related to signal transduction, regulation of transcription, apoptosis and metabolism. Conclusion: A39S mutated DJ-1 may disturb the transcriptional activities of DJ-l and involve in the pathogenesis of PD.

Comprehensive Variant Screening of the UGT Gene Family

PURPOSE: UGT1A1, UGT2B7, and UGT2B15 are well-known pharmacogenes that belong to the uridine diphosphate glucuronyltransferase gene family. For personalized drug treatment, it is important to study differences in the frequency of core markers across various ethnic groups. Accordingly, we screened single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of these three genes and analyzed differences in their frequency among five ethnic groups, as well as attempted to predict the function of novel SNPs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We directly sequenced 288 subjects consisting of 96 Korean, 48 Japanese, 48 Han Chinese, 48 African American, and 48 European American subjects. Subsequently, we analyzed genetic variability, linkage disequilibrium (LD) structures and ethnic differences for each gene. We also conducted in silico analysis to predict the function of novel SNPs. RESULTS: A total of 87 SNPs were detected, with seven pharmacogenetic core SNPs and 31 novel SNPs. We observed that the frequencies of UGT1A1 *6 (rs4148323), UGT1A1 *60 (rs4124874), UGT1A1 *93 (rs10929302), UGT2B7 *2 (rs7439366), a part of UGT2B7 *3 (rs12233719), and UGT2B15 *2 (rs1902023) were different between Asian and other ethnic groups. Additional in silico analysis results showed that two novel promoter SNPs of UGT1A1 -690G>A and -689A>C were found to potentially change transcription factor binding sites. Moreover, 673G>A (UGT2B7), 2552T>C, and 23269C>T (both SNPs from UGT2B15) changed amino acid properties, which could cause structural deformation. CONCLUSION: Findings from the present study would be valuable for further studies on pharmacogenetic studies of personalized medicine and drug response.