Disease relevance of SSBP2

• SSBP2, a candidate tumor suppressor gene, induces growth arrest and differentiation of myeloid leukemia cells [1].
• The minor allele of SSBP2 SNP rs17296479 and the increased tumor expression of SSBP2 were statistically significantly associated with poorer overall survival among glioblastoma patients [2].

High impact information on SSBP2

• Furthermore, inducible expression of SSBP2 in the AML cell line U937 leads to loss of clonogenicity, G1 arrest and partial differentiation [1].
• Remarkably, inducible expression of SSBP2 is accompanied by downregulation of C-MYC expression [1].
• Our findings are consistent with human SSBP2 being a novel regulator of hematopoietic growth and differentiation, whose loss confers a block in differentiation advantage to myeloid leukemic cells [1].
• Using positional cloning strategies, we characterized an evolutionarily conserved candidate myeloid leukemia suppressor gene encoding sequence-specific single-stranded DNA binding protein 2 (SSBP2) from chromosome 5q13.3, a locus that is frequently deleted in AML [1].
• Here, we report the development of a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) contig to define the breakpoint and the identification of a novel gene SSBP2, the target of disruption in ML3 cells [3].

Biological context of SSBP2

• A preliminary evaluation of SSBP2 as a tumor suppressor gene in primary leukemic blasts and cell lines suggests that the remaining allele does not undergo intragenic mutations [3].

References