Disease relevance of RHOBTB1

• Identification of a candidate tumor suppressor gene RHOBTB1 located at a novel allelic loss region 10q21 in head and neck cancer [1].

High impact information on RHOBTB1

• The biological roles of RHOBTB proteins, including DBC2, remain unclear [2].
• RHOBTB1 (located on chromosome 10) and RHOBTB3 (located on chromosome 5) appear ubiquitously expressed [3].
• RHOBTB2 (located on chromosome 8) showed much lower levels of expression than the other two human RHOBTB genes and it was most abundant in neural tissues [3].
• RHOBTB genes are upregulated in some cancer cell lines, suggesting that these proteins might participate in tumorigenesis [3].
• CONCLUSION: Frequent allelic loss and decreased expression of RHOBTB1 suggested that this gene has a role in tumorigenesis of a subset of HNSCC [1].

Biological context of RHOBTB1

• Expression analysis revealed down-regulation of RHOBTB1 mRNA in 37% of tumors [1].

Anatomical context of RHOBTB1

• However, they display a differential pattern of expression: RHOBTB1 showed high levels in stomach, skeletal muscle, placenta, kidney and testis, whereas RHOBTB3 was highly expressed in neural and cardiac tissues, pancreas, placenta and testis [3].

References