Characterisation of the novel deleterious RAD51C p.Arg312Trp variant and prioritisation criteria for functional analysis of RAD51C missense changes

• Published in: British journal of cancer 2017-09, Vol.117 (7), p.1048-1062
• Main Authors: Gayarre, Javier, Martín-Gimeno, Paloma, Osorio, Ana, Paumard, Beatriz, Barroso, Alicia, Fernández, Victoria, de la Hoya, Miguel, Rojo, Alejandro, Caldés, Trinidad, Palacios, José, Urioste, Miguel, Benítez, Javier, García, María J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/208/68; 631/67/1517; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Algorithms; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Breast Neoplasms - genetics; Cancer Research; Carcinoma - genetics; Case-Control Studies; Cell Cycle - drug effects; Cell Cycle - genetics; Cell Survival - drug effects; Cell Survival - genetics; Cells, Cultured; Chromosomal Instability; Colorectal Neoplasms - genetics; Criteria; DNA Mutational Analysis; DNA-Binding Proteins - genetics; Drug Resistance; Epidemiology; Exome; Female; Functional analysis; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetics & Genomics; genetics-and-genomics; Genotype; Heterozygosity; Histones - metabolism; Homology; Humans; Hypersensitivity; Loss of Heterozygosity; Male; Middle Aged; Mitomycin; Mitomycin - pharmacology; Molecular Medicine; Mutation, Missense; Oncology; Ovarian cancer; Ovarian carcinoma; Ovarian Neoplasms - genetics; Pathogenicity; Pathogens; Pedigree; Risk Assessment - methods; Sequence Homology; Stomach Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging
• ISSN: 0007-0920; 1532-1827
• DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2017.286

Background: Despite a high prevalence of deleterious missense variants, most studies of RAD51C ovarian cancer susceptibility gene only provide in silico pathogenicity predictions of missense changes. We identified a novel deleterious RAD51C missense variant (p.Arg312Trp) in a high-risk family, and propose a criteria to prioritise RAD51C missense changes qualifying for functional analysis. Methods: To evaluate pathogenicity of p.Arg312Trp variant we used sequence homology, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and segregation analysis, and a comprehensive functional characterisation. To define a functional-analysis prioritisation criteria, we used outputs for the known functionally confirmed deleterious and benign RAD51C missense changes from nine pathogenicity prediction algorithms. Results: The p.Arg312Trp variant failed to correct mitomycin and olaparib hypersensitivity and to complement abnormal RAD51C foci formation according to functional assays, which altogether with LOH and segregation data demonstrated deleteriousness. Prioritisation criteria were based on the number of predictors providing a deleterious output, with a minimum of 5 to qualify for testing and a PredictProtein score greater than 33 to assign high-priority indication. Conclusions: Our study points to a non-negligible number of RAD51C missense variants likely to impair protein function, provides a guideline to prioritise and encourage their selection for functional analysis and anticipates that reference laboratories should have available resources to conduct such assays.