The Contribution of SELENOF to the Disproportionate Mortality Experienced by African American Men
Abstract
Prostate cancer disproportionately affects African American men and our laboratory has determined that an at-risk polymorphism in the gene for SELNOF is 10-times more frequent in the genomes of African Americans and this genetic variation is likely to result in lower SELENOF levels in tissues. Consistent with these observations is data indicating that the levels the SELENOF protein are lower in the prostate tumors of African American men as well. It remains possible that reduced levels of SELENOF are not contributing to cancer progression, but are just a "bystander" to the changes that occur during malignancy. The most significant finding during the initial funding period was that the reduction of SELENOF in immortalized prostate epithelial cells using ShRNA argues against that possibility. The reduction of SELENOF in these cells altered the morphology of the cells, increased their ability to grow in soft agar and enhanced their ability to migrate in a scratch assay, all of these are hallmarks of malignant transformation. These data therefore provide solid evidence that the loss of SELENOF is mechanistically linked to prostate cancer aggressiveness and contribute to the disparity in disease outcome experienced by African Americans.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1087984
Entities
People
- Alan M Diamond
Organizations
- University of Illinois at Chicago