Our study suggests that UBIAD1 serves as a tumor suppressor in cancer and tentatively reveals the underlying mechanism of melanotic mass formation in Drosophila.
The tumor suppressor TERE1 (UBIAD1) prenyltransferase regulates the elevated cholesterol phenotype in castration resistant prostate cancer by controlling a program of ligand dependent SXR target genes.
To extend this potential tumor suppressor role for the TERE1 protein to renal cell carcinoma (RCC), we applied TERE1 immunohistochemistry to a TMA panel of 28 RCC lesions and determined that in 57% of RCC lesions, TERE1 expression was reduced (36%) or absent (21%).
Though a loss of heterozygosity at chromosome 1p36 was found in 25% of these prostate tumors, there appeared to be no TERE1 mutations present in these tumor samples.
The TERE1 transcript (1.5 and 3.5 kb) is present in most normal human tissues including urothelium, but was reduced or absent in the majority of muscle invasive TCC tumors (22 out of 29 cases).