Human BLCAP transcript: new editing events in normal and cancerous tissues.
Bladder cancer-associated protein (BLCAP) is a highly conserved protein among species, and it is considered a novel candidate tumor suppressor gene originally identified from human bladder carcinoma. However, little is known about the regulation or the function of this protein. Here, we show that the human BLCAP transcript undergoes multiple A-to-I editing events. Some of the new editing events alter the highly conserved amino terminus of the protein creating alternative protein isoforms by changing the genetically coded amino acids. We found that both ADAR1 and ADAR2-editing enzymes cooperate to edit this transcript and that different tissues displayed distinctive ratios of edited and unedited BLCAP transcripts. Moreover, we observed a general decrease in BLCAP-editing level in astrocytomas, bladder cancer and colorectal cancer when compared with the related normal tissues. The newly identified editing events, found to be downregulated in cancers, could be useful for future studies as a diagnostic tool to distinguish malignancies or epigenetic changes in different tumors.
Galeano
Federica
F
Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù, Piazza S Onofrio 4, 00165 Rome, Italy.
Leroy
Anne
A
Rossetti
Claudia
C
Gromova
Irina
I
Gautier
Philippe
P
Keegan
Liam P
LP
Massimi
Luca
L
Di Rocco
Concezio
C
O'Connell
Mary A
MA
Gallo
Angela
A
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D017931:DNA Primers; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D017393:RNA Editing; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
C453739:BLCAP protein, human; D017931:DNA Primers; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D022661:RNA, Untranslated