The risk variant rs11836367 contributes to breast cancer onset and metastasis by attenuating Wnt signaling via regulating NTN4 expression
Menée à partir de données épidémiologiques portant sur 1 336 témoins et 873 patientes atteintes d'un carcinome canalaire infiltrant puis menée in vitro et à l'aide de modèles murins, cette étude met en évidence un mécanisme par lequel le variant rs11836367 de la région chromosomique 12q22 contribue au développement d'un cancer du sein et au processus métastatique en atténuant la voie de signalisation Wnt via la surexpression de la protéine NTN4
Most genome-wide association study (GWAS)–identified breast cancer–associated causal variants remain uncharacterized. To provide a framework of understanding GWAS-identified variants to function, we performed a comprehensive study of noncoding regulatory variants at the NTN4 locus (12q22) and NTN4 gene in breast cancer etiology. We find that rs11836367 is the more likely causal variant, disrupting enhancer activity in both enhancer reporter assays and endogenous genome editing experiments. The protective T allele of rs11837367 increases the binding of GATA3 to the distal enhancer and up-regulates NTN4 expression. In addition, we demonstrate that loss of NTN4 gene in mice leads to tumor earlier onset, progression, and metastasis. We discover that NTN4, as a tumor suppressor, can attenuate the Wnt signaling pathway by directly binding to Wnt ligands. Our findings bridge the gaps among breast cancer–associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms, transcriptional regulation of NTN4, and breast cancer biology, which provides previously unidentified insights into breast cancer prediction and prevention.