CLPTM1L and TERT have been implicated in cancers, and CIITA is considered as the "master control factor" for the expression of NPC-associated MHC class II genes.
In addition, using an immunohistochemistry assay, we observed higher TERT and CLPTM1L levels in NPC tissues compared with that in non-cancerous nasopharyngeal tissues.
Supporting our finding, rs31489 and other SNPs in this region have been reported to be associated with multiple cancer sites, candidate-based studies have reported associations between polymorphisms in this region and NPC, the TERT gene has been shown to be important for telomere maintenance and has been reported to be overexpressed in NPC, and an EBV protein expressed in NPC (LMP1) has been reported to modulate TERT expression/telomerase activity.
Our data suggested cumulative increased NPC risk associations with TERT-CLPTM1L and DSBR pathways contribute to genetic susceptibility to NPC and have potential translational relevance for patient stratification and therapeutics.
Together, our data suggest that the rAAV/rAdv-hTERTC27 cocktail can potently inhibit NPC tumor growth in both local and metastasized tumors and should be further developed as a novel gene therapy strategy for NPC.
Four out of six genetic variants implicated in the recent NPC GWAS were associated with NPC risk (p (trend) ≤ 0.03), as well as two variants (rs402710 and rs2736098) on the TERT locus at 5p15.33 (p = 0.004 and p = 0.04, respectively).
Our results suggest that short hairpin RNA directed against human telomerase reverse transcriptase inhibits cell viability by regulating telomerase activity and its related proteins expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells.
Epstein-Barr virus encoded latent membrane protein 1 modulates nuclear translocation of telomerase reverse transcriptase protein by activating nuclear factor-kappaB p65 in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells.