title: Variant forms of DNA polymerase beta in primary lung carcinomas.
abstract: DNA polymerase beta (pol beta) provides most of the gap-filling synthesis at apurinic/apyrimidine sites of damaged DNA in the base excision repair pathway. A truncated form of the pol beta protein is expressed in colon and breast cancers. However, the role of the pol beta gene in lung cancer is not known. Thus, we investigated a possible occurrence of pol beta variants in primary lung tumors. The entire cDNA of pol beta obtained by RT-PCR amplification was analyzed for nucleotide sequencing in lung tumor and matched normal lung tissue of the same patient. Three types of variants were detected in squamous, non-small, or large cell carcinomas. The most common variant was a deletion of 87 bp from pol beta cDNA at a site corresponding to exon 11. In addition, a variant exhibiting deletions of 87 and 140 bp together with an insertion of 105 bp was identified in three lung tumors. This is the first report of the occurrence of pol beta variants, possibly splicing variants, in lung cancer. A truncated pol beta protein resulting from variant forms of the gene may impact the function of the enzyme and increase susceptibility to carcinogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio 44195, USA.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bhattacharyya
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Comhair
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Erzurum
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Banerjee
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000235:genetics; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000235:genetics; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics; D019951:DNA Polymerase beta / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D017353:Gene Deletion; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D019951:DNA Polymerase beta