Disease relevance of ST18

• We further show that ectopic ST18 expression in MCF-7 breast cancer cells strongly inhibits colony formation in soft agar and the formation of tumors in a xenograft mouse model [1].
• These genes are located on 15 unique loci of the serovar Typhi genome, including Salmonella pathogenicity islands (SPI-7, SPI-8, and SPI-10) and bacteriophages (ST15, ST18, and ST35) [2].

High impact information on ST18

• ST18 is a breast cancer tumor suppressor gene at human chromosome 8q11.2 [1].
• The ST18 gene encodes a zinc-finger DNA-binding protein with six fingers of the C2HC type (configuration Cys-X5-Cys-X12-His-X4-Cys) and an SMC domain [1].
• In breast cancer cell lines and the majority of primary breast tumors, ST18 mRNA is significantly downregulated [1].
• ST18 is expressed in a number of normal tissues including mammary epithelial cells although the level of expression is quite low [1].
• We have identified a gene, ST18 (suppression of tumorigenicity 18, breast carcinoma, zinc-finger protein), within a frequent imbalanced region of chromosome 8q11 as a breast cancer tumor suppressor gene [1].

Biological context of ST18

• The strong correlation between ST18 promoter hypermethylation and loss of ST18 expression in tumor cells suggests that this epigenetic mechanism is responsible for tumor-specific downregulation [1].

References