Down's syndrome suppression of tumour growth and the role of the calcineurin inhibitor DSCR1 (original) (raw)

Nature volume 459, pages 1126–1130 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The incidence of many cancer types is significantly reduced in individuals with Down’s syndrome1,2,3,4, and it is thought that this broad cancer protection is conferred by the increased expression of one or more of the 231 supernumerary genes on the extra copy of chromosome 21. One such gene is Down’s syndrome candidate region-1 (DSCR1, also known as RCAN1), which encodes a protein that suppresses vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-mediated angiogenic signalling by the calcineurin pathway5,6,7,8,9,10. Here we show that DSCR1 is increased in Down’s syndrome tissues and in a mouse model of Down’s syndrome. Furthermore, we show that the modest increase in expression afforded by a single extra transgenic copy of Dscr1 is sufficient to confer significant suppression of tumour growth in mice, and that such resistance is a consequence of a deficit in tumour angiogenesis arising from suppression of the calcineurin pathway. We also provide evidence that attenuation of calcineurin activity by DSCR1, together with another chromosome 21 gene Dyrk1a, may be sufficient to markedly diminish angiogenesis. These data provide a mechanism for the reduced cancer incidence in Down’s syndrome and identify the calcineurin signalling pathway, and its regulators DSCR1 and DYRK1A, as potential therapeutic targets in cancers arising in all individuals.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Evan, C. Kim, K. Cichowski and J. Italiano for critical discussions and advice. This work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (G.Q.D.), Harvard Stem Cell Institute (G.Q.D.), the National Institute of Health Director’s Pioneer Award (G.Q.D.), NHLBI (W.C.A.), Jerome Lejeune Foundation (Z.G.), USUHS (Z.G.), the Smith Family Medical Foundation (S.R.), the Garrett B. Smith Foundation (S.R.) and Annie’s Fun Foundation (S.R.).

Author Contributions K.-H.B., A.Z., R.C.L. and C.B. performed the experiments, analysed the data and generated the figures. I.-H.P. and M.W.L. performed experiments. Y.O., R.J.S., T.M., W.C.A. and Z.G. generated the transgenic mouse models in this manuscript and analysed data. G.Q.D. designed experiments and analysed data. S.S.Y. and J.R.K. contributed to pilot experiments. J.F. and S.R. generated the hypotheses. S.R. designed and performed experiments, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Kwan-Hyuck Baek, Alexander Zaslavsky and Ryan C. Lynch: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Vascular Biology Program, Children’s Hospital Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA,
    Kwan-Hyuck Baek, Alexander Zaslavsky, Ryan C. Lynch, Carmella Britt, Judah Folkman & Sandra Ryeom
  2. Division of Molecular and Vascular Medicine, Center for Vascular Biology Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA,
    Yoshiaki Okada & William C. Aird
  3. Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Genetic, Neuroscience, Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Services, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, USA,
    Richard J. Siarey & Zygmunt Galdzicki
  4. Department of Medicine, Division of Pediatric Hematology Oncology, Children’s Hospital Boston, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA,
    M. William Lensch, In-Hyun Park & George Q. Daley
  5. Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Maryland 02114, USA,
    Sam S. Yoon
  6. Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 153-8904, Japan ,
    Takashi Minami
  7. Department of Pediatrics and The Brain Institute, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108, USA,
    Julie R. Korenberg

Authors

  1. Kwan-Hyuck Baek
  2. Alexander Zaslavsky
  3. Ryan C. Lynch
  4. Carmella Britt
  5. Yoshiaki Okada
  6. Richard J. Siarey
  7. M. William Lensch
  8. In-Hyun Park
  9. Sam S. Yoon
  10. Takashi Minami
  11. Julie R. Korenberg
  12. Judah Folkman
  13. George Q. Daley
  14. William C. Aird
  15. Zygmunt Galdzicki
  16. Sandra Ryeom

Corresponding author

Correspondence toSandra Ryeom.

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Baek, KH., Zaslavsky, A., Lynch, R. et al. Down's syndrome suppression of tumour growth and the role of the calcineurin inhibitor DSCR1.Nature 459, 1126–1130 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08062

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Editorial Summary

Down's syndrome and cancer

Individuals with Down's syndrome are known to have a lower rate of certain solid cancers. New work from Baek et al. shows that a mouse model with an extra copy of the chromosome 21 gene Dscr1 (encoding Down syndrome critical region protein 1) exhibits decreased tumour growth due to reduced angiogenesis. They provide evidence that together with another chromosome 21 gene, Dyrk1a, a modest increase in Dscr1 expression limits angiogenesis by decreasing the activity of the calcineurin pathway. These data provide a mechanism for the reduced cancer incidence in Down's syndrome and identify the calcineurin signalling pathway, and its regulators DSCR1 and DYRK1A, as potential therapeutic targets in cancers arising in all individuals.