200405 Aneuploidy & Cancer

Weighing up effects of extra chromosomes

This is a research highlight about genetics published in Nature Reviews Cancer on the last day of March. It summarized two articles related with  chromosome numbers changing and cancer developing, which were published in Nature genetics and Development Cell, seperately.

The first article mainly explored a single chromosome number change and its effects with cancer development. They found that chromosome 5 trisomy lead to different invasion results by using HCT116 human colon cancer cells as specimens. This later was indicated that it was likely dependent on cell niche.

Aneuploidy typically correlates with poor prognosis. However, their research indicated that chromosome number gaining helped in prognosis in some rare conditions.

cited form the website

In the second rearch paper published in Development Cell, WGD (whole genome doubling) and its effects in cancer were explained. A hypothesis was introduced at first : A selective pressure favoring genome doubling might exist during tumorigenesis. Later it was found that WGD might help buffer deleterous effects and negative selection existed but happend before WGD.

WGD was found highly related with LOH (loss of heterozygosity) in many cancer types. Some tumor suppressor genes, such as PTEN and TP53 was found generally exist in regions of LOH. They found ZNF70, NOTCH1 and SMAD4 as tumor suppresor candidates via this rule.

All in all, as mentioned in the highligh and these two articles, changes of chromosome numbers have wide-ranging effects and are likely context-dependent. Meanwhile, much remains to be explored about its role in cancer progression.

my summary

Vocabulary:

[1] trisomy /'traisəumi/ n. 三(染色)体性,三(染色)体细胞 (trisomies)

[2] Aneuploidy typically correlates with poor prognosis, which seemed at odds with the authors’ findings.

/prɒg'nəʊsɪs/ <医>预后(指医生对疾病结果的预测)

/ɒdz/ n. 不平等；几率；胜算；差别

at odds with 与…争执，意见不一致；与…不和；差异

She is at odds with her boss.

The odds had shortened to 14–1.

Despite the odds, I will not give up. (尽管有极大的困难```)

[3] Looking closer at regions of

[4] have wide-ranging effects