title: Human BLCAP transcript: new editing events in normal and cancerous tissues.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù, Piazza S Onofrio 4, 00165 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Galeano
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leroy
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rossetti
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gromova
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gautier
authors.forename: Liam P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Keegan
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Massimi
authors.forename: Concezio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Di Rocco
authors.forename: Mary A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: O'Connell
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gallo
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: C453739:BLCAP protein, human; D017931:DNA Primers; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D022661:RNA, Untranslated