Genetic variability of the mTOR pathway and prostate cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation on Cancer (EPIC)

• Published in: PloS one 2011-02, Vol.6 (2), p.e16914-e16914
• Main Authors: Campa, Daniele, Hüsing, Anika, Stein, Angelika, Dostal, Lucie, Boeing, Heiner, Pischon, Tobias, Tjønneland, Anne, Roswall, Nina, Overvad, Kim, Østergaard, Jane Nautrup, Rodríguez, Laudina, Sala, Núria, Sánchez, Maria-José, Larrañaga, Nerea, Huerta, José María, Barricarte, Aurelio, Khaw, Kay-Tee, Wareham, Nicholas, Travis, Ruth C, Allen, Naomi E, Lagiou, Pagona, Trichopoulou, Antonia, Trichopoulos, Dimitrios, Palli, Domenico, Sieri, Sabina, Tumino, Rosario, Sacerdote, Carlotta, van Kranen, Henk, Bueno-de-Mesquita, H Bas, Hallmans, Göran, Johansson, Mattias, Romieu, Isabelle, Jenab, Mazda, Cox, David G, Siddiq, Afshan, Riboli, Elio, Canzian, Federico, Kaaks, Rudolf
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Amino acids; Biology; Biomedical research; Biosynthesis; Cancer; Cancer research; Carcinoma; Carcinoma - genetics; Carcinoma - metabolism; Cardiology; Case-Control Studies; Cell growth; Cell size; Cellular signal transduction; Clinical medicine; Consortia; Cytokines; Data collection; Disease susceptibility; Epidemiology; Europe; Gene expression; Genes; Genetic markers; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetic variability; Genetic Variation; Genetic Variation - physiology; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genotype; Health aspects; Health risks; Hospitals; Humans; Isoenzymes; Isoenzymes - genetics; Kinases; Life Sciences; Male; Medical research; Medical statistics; Medicine; Meta-analysis; Middle Aged; Multicenter Studies as Topic; Neoplasms; Neoplasms - genetics; Nutrition; p53 Protein; Phosphorylation; Prostate cancer; Prostatic Neoplasms; Prostatic Neoplasms - genetics; Prostatic Neoplasms - metabolism; Protein biosynthesis; Protein Kinase C; Protein Kinase C - genetics; Protein synthesis; Proteins; Public health; Rapamycin; Risk; Risk Factors; Signal Transduction; Signal Transduction - genetics; Single nucleotide polymorphisms; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Stem cells; Studies; Tagging; TOR protein; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases - genetics; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases - metabolism; Transduction; Tumor proteins; Variability
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016914

The mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signal transduction pathway integrates various signals, regulating ribosome biogenesis and protein synthesis as a function of available energy and amino acids, and assuring an appropriate coupling of cellular proliferation with increases in cell size. In addition, recent evidence has pointed to an interplay between the mTOR and p53 pathways. We investigated the genetic variability of 67 key genes in the mTOR pathway and in genes of the p53 pathway which interact with mTOR. We tested the association of 1,084 tagging SNPs with prostate cancer risk in a study of 815 prostate cancer cases and 1,266 controls nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). We chose the SNPs (n = 11) with the strongest association with risk (p