Ubiquitous cancer genes: multipurpose molecules for protein micro-arrays.
Multipurpose genes in the human genome which are over-expressed in a large variety of different cancers have been identified. Forty-two of the 19,016 human genes annotated to date (0.2%) are ubiquitously over-expressed in half or more of the 36 investigated human cancers. Of these genes, 15 are involved in protein biosynthesis and folding, six of them in glycolysis. A group of 13 solid tumours over-express almost all (39-42 of 42) ubiquitous cancer genes, suggesting a common mechanism underlying these cancers. Others, such as endocrine cancers, have only a few over-expressed ubiquitous cancer genes. The proteins for which these genes code or the corresponding antibodies are candidates for small protein microarrays aiming at maximum information with only a limited number of proteins. Since the over-expression pattern varies from cancer to cancer, distinction between different cancer classes is possible using one single set of protein or antibody molecules.
Altenberg
Brigitte
B
European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Bioinformatics Group, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. altenberg@embl.de
Gemuend
Christine
C
Greulich
Karl Otto
KO
D030541:Databases, Genetic; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D052138:Genes, Neoplasm; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D040081:Protein Array Analysis